Hoshi no Kaabii: Eternal Happiness
by NataliaXDX
Summary: Following the defeat of Nightmare, Kirby is pulled into a series of strange incidents, such as the battling of the sun and moon, and strange villains rising to challenge him. He is soon forced to face friends and foes alike in this story of the happenings between both the anime and the games.
1. Chapter 1

It was a quiet night in Popstar. Ever since the defeat of Nightmare less than a year ago, not much had happened.

Only two key things, in fact; Popstar had held a game, only one month from his defeat, and a small, onion- shaped witch with a wisp of green hair and eyes the same color named Grill and her three onion friends, Salt, Pepper, and Sugar, had tried to defeat Kirby, because Grill was the official 'champion' of the game, and no one could defeat her. She lost after a long battle, but had instantly made amends with Kirby, becoming one of his closest friends.

Until now.

At this particularly quiet night, a small jester bouncing on a multicolored beach ball appeared next to Kirby's house. He was unseen by the villagers, staying in the shadows and remaining as quiet as possible. He studied the house, almost with a look of remorse on his face and suddenly spotted the window, through which where Kirby was seensleeping.

"_That's _the warrior of the stars?" he asked quietly, seemingly to himself for a moment until a young girl appeared next to him. Unlike him, she didn't seem to mind being seen, so her features could be seen.

She had long brown hair, with a beret similar to Adeleine's rested on her head. She wore a purple old-fashioned dress; a cute petite top draped over a large looped puffy bottom. In addition to the overall silhouette and wasp waist, the tightly fitted pagoda sleeves with white opera length gloves that indicated heavy Victorian influences. She was slender and average sized, with paler skin than the jester usually saw her with. It was obvious that her age was about... 15? 14 and a half? But in truth, she was possibly more than fifty thousand years old.

The jester couldn't see her expression because of her short bangs that fell on her face.

"Don't use a sarcastic tone like that, child," she said coldly, staring at Kirby. "He's radiating much more power than I thought."

"You scared, Annie?" sneered the jester, directing his attention to her and not dropping his sarcastic voice. "You scared that your pretty features aren't gonna last against him?"

'Annie' scoffed, refraining herself from laughing psychotically.

"Jester, Annemarie is my... what would you call it? _Codename_. Ai is my real name, which is translates to love. Love is pure beauty, is it not? Why would I worry?"

"Then why are you doing this to yourself? You might sacrifice yourself for what? Making your so-called _'__creator__'_ happy? Isn't love supposed to stand for the good?" Annemarie stared at the jester with non-lingering eyes.

"... Wouldn't you have done it to have your mother and siblings?" This was the jester's turn to remain silent, and this time there was no answer.

"Good. You know what we do, correct?"

A nod came, but no answer again. There was a small, awkward silence between the two, one that seemed to last an hour, but actually lasted for a few minutes, until finally, Annemarie walked to the window. Much to the jester's shock, she bowed to the puffball, and a smile appeared on her face, the ones that he had seen before she had been given this mission with him, the ones she gave him whenever they had fun with each other, or he would tell her a joke to make her feel better.

"I hope we do not stay enemies forever, Kirby," she whispered, then quickly got up when she seemed to remember Marx was there. He gave her a strange look, until finally she hissed, "What are _you _staring at, Jester?"

"Nothing! Nothing..." he answered, but a smirk was forming on his lips, one that said, _'I now know how to blackmail you out of your donuts.'_

Annemarie looked at Kirby one more time before walking to the jester and forcefully pulling one of the ends of his hat to drag him in her direction, much to his annoyance.

"Come on, jester," she said softly. "We need to reenact our plan."

...

Space. The one place Meta Knight went to in all of his dreams. Normally, a person that dreamed of space _every single day _needed to see a therapist. But not him. At least, that's what Rebecca said.

Rebecca was possibly Meta Knight's own conscious, but also one of the three rulers of the universe. She was a puffball, with long, wavy transparent hair and soft, aqua eyes with long, defined eyelashes. Her form wasn't visible, but it was clear that she was a puffball, which was slightly strange. Then again, there were the other leaders. But Rebecca never spoke of them. She said that speaking of them gave her a weaker view of everything, giving a chaotic form that made her tear apart everything. Meta Knight gave up after hearing about _that_.

But this time, it wasn't space where they were. Not exactly. Around him, he saw parts of ships that he usually saw on the Halberd, except with much more brightness. He could hardly see anything else. Except right in front of him. A faint glowing led him to a pink, glowing heart, floating in the center of a large pentagon.

"Wh- where am I?" he asked, hardly hearing his own voice inside the machinery.

"The destination you will reach in a few days," said Rebecca's voice, radiating from the whole machine. "This is the Galactic Nova."

"N-Nova?!" said Meta Knight in surprise. "The wish-granting comet?!"

"Yes," said Rebecca, her white spirit form appearing in front of him. This form allowed her to be invisible to him, so she used this form all the time. "You seem to know about this wish comet, or, better terms, wishing star. Why study it?"

Sir Meta Knight sighed, almost embarrassed for the first time in possibly forever.

"Well... I was hoping I could get at least one of my siblings back by using this... or, earlier, to destroy Nightmare. But since he's out..."

"You will reach the comet," she said, pretending to not hear this statement. "By an evil force. That's as much as I can tell."

"But what do I tell the comet?" he asked, then added, "If I get to make a wish?"

The light paused for a moment, putting a hand to her chin.

"This comet, ignoring it's intelligence, can mistake the meaning of your wish easily. Whether this is because it likes to, or it is to teach the wisher a lesson, is unknown. It's creator..." Rebecca quickly stopped talking and looked down.

"Never mind."

Meta Knight sighed, this time out of grief than embarrassment. She did this all the time. She would say something vital, and leave out the rest for him to work out, always saying 'never mind' in the end. He had gotten used to it.

"So if I say I want to fight a specific being, will it send all of the beings with the same name to fight me?"

"That is correct."

"What if the person has a specific title not used by others?"

"Then the wish cannot be confused."

"That's... all you needed to say? Usually you say more."

The light chuckled for the first time in a long while, amused by this.

"Ha ha. Sir Meta Knight, that's is the amusement I needed to hear. I've been quite miserable for such a while..."

A glowing hand gestured behind her, and suddenly they weren't in Nova anymore. They were near Kirby's house. Meta Knight's eyes widened.

"What are we doing here?"

"Simple," said the light, her voice right next to him, coming from the light instead of booming from his surroundings. She walked to the house where Kirby slept as he curled into a smaller ball than he already was and giggled in his sleep, almost as if Rebecca affected his dreams. She floated to the window and sat down, as if ready to tell Kirby a bedtime story.

"Remember the dark force I mentioned earlier?" she asked, once he seemed comfortable.

"Yes."

"That dark force is using a small boy, just like years ago to a little girl. You remember how it ended, right?"

Meta Knight winced, his eyes turning red at the memory of the little girl, hardly fourteen, screaming to get out of the eternal nightmare she was forced in.

"Yes," he repeated darkly.

"You have to save him before he is completely divided in half by that force." She coolly jumped from the tree, landing perfectly on her feet. Kirby grimaced as if the perfect dream was gone, then rolled over, almost falling off the bed.

"And by divided in half, I mean his soul, mind, _and _body."

"And what do we do before that happens?"

Rebecca shrugged her nonexistent shoulders.

"Absolutely nothing."

"What?!" As Meta Knight yelled, Tokkori screamed from inside as Gooey shrieked, **"OBJECTION!"**, and Kirby's eyes widened. He looked around as Meta Knight drew his breath in sharply. Kirby exhaled softly as if relieved he hadn't found anything, and curled back into his ball. Rebecca chuckled quietly, and even from the light, Meta Knight could see her smile.

"He cannot feel hatred. When he destroyed Nightmare, he felt happy, but at the same time, inside, he felt remorse. Such a strange creature, even if it is from your kind."

"No hatred...?" Meta Knight shook his head. "We've talked about that. But what did you mean by doing nothing? We have to help him! He's a child, like Kirby!" He heard Rebecca sigh softly, recalling a memory.

"Yes... rejected, possessed, and hated. That's all those damn spirits from hell are looking for." The light spit in the ground and the spit became quickly transparent.

"Rebecca..." whispered Meta Knight. "Do these spirits hurt you in another way than that?"

Rebecca scoffed at first, but paused and stared at Meta Knight, almost in a trusting way. Right when she was about to say it...

"Oh! You'll be late for the morning!" she said quickly, making him reappear in the castle. "You don't want to be late for a morning like this! The dark spirit could come in any form! Be alert!"

Meta Knight rolled his eyes behind his mask, stepping next to his Popstar/ ground-linked body. He turned to look at Rebecca, who was still looking at him.

"And Rebecca?"

"Hmm?"

"... take care. I don't want you to leave me, too."

Rebecca nodded darkly and vanished before he could say good bye.

...

Marx glanced behind him, eyes wide. Ai had given up trying to follow him, so he finally had his chance. It took a while to walk through the twists and turns of the woods, but he finally made it. An abandoned village, filled with buildings that looked like they would fall apart in mere seconds. Trees withered and turned, occupied by dead leaves and thin, sickly branches. The grass was even dead.

This place, referred to as the Broken Village by most, was a village of nightmares, and of lost hopes. A place of sorrow, loss, and twisted happiness. It was his only true home. Most would cower at the sight of it, a sickly place for rejects. But Marx didn't. He loved it.

The humming, which he didn't hear instantly when he entered the village, caught him off guard, but he immediately returned to his old composure and smiled, one of his true smiles, that he usually didn't use.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said softly, his eyes twinkling with happiness. "Long time no see, gemstone."

'Gemstone.' That's what he called it. He didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but that's the name it enjoyed. And finally, he saw it. A large crystal, glowing in an illuminating light, planted deep into the ground. It hummed almost joyfully, and almost seemed to reposition itself so it could lean towards Marx. Marx skipped towards and leaned against it, eyes glowing.

"Did you miss me?"

The crystal almost screamed the answer back:

_**YES! OF COURSE!**_

Marx smiled. The more time he spent with it, the easier it was to understand it. And the more kindness he received. He hopped around, a pout forming on his face.

"Do you think I'm going too far? I mean... Kirby... doesn't seem that bad..."

He got an answer he didn't understand fully:

_**NO...BAD...GAWAIN...EVIL...NIGHTMARE...TRICK...STAR WARRIOR... LIES...**_

Marx stiffened and nodded. "You're right. He'll probably trick me like the rest." He gave a deep sigh, then smiled again when the crystal hummed in agreement. "But maybe he'll rule with me! Who knows?" He received a shriek of protest, and Marx chuckled.

"I'm just kidding! You need to calm down! I'll be right back, I promise." But he himself didn't believe it when he left the forest and his friend behind, possibly forever.

...

Kirby gave out a sigh and gave up trying to sleep in the house. Tokkori kept pecking at him, and Gooey had a habit of falling asleep on him (or vice versa). He got off of Gooey, and he gasped for air.

"Ugh! That was like being born!" he cried, then looked at Kirby. He looked worried. "You're not going out for a long time, right? Just for the night?" Kirby gave him a nod, and he gave a sigh of relief. "Good. I don't think I would've survived in here for long. You see, there's this crazy bird woman-"

"I'm a man!" yelled Tokkori, then falling back into a deep sleep. Gooey gave the bird a sly half-smile.

"Riiiight," he murmured, then turned back to Kirby. "Anyways, don't be gone for a long time, OK? Promise me?"

Kirby lifted an eyebrow but nodded and went outside. That was fine with him. He wasn't planning to leave anyway.

**"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Martin Luther King Jr.**

**Author's Note: For those who read the story earlier, you can see I added a bit more to make it more up-to-date. I'll be adding much more to all the chapters (which is why this story is still marked as 'in-progress') so I can deepen the friendship between them, and to bring more depth into the story. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

A friendly argument. That's what they, 'they' being the sun and moon, called the raging mini-war and explosive cursing in the sky, that officially started the larger series of battles that Kirby fought.

A friendly argument.

Kirby was literally blown off of the nest he was sleeping peacefully on when the first blow sounded. The sun had successfully punched the moon in the face. At least, that's what it looked like. As Kirby looked around sleepily, he heard Tokkori yell, "KIRBY! Did you eat Waddle Doo again!?" when the bird was suddenly grabbed by a rope-like object- probably Gooey's tongue- and launched across the room.

Kirby blushed embarrassingly at that thought and stuck his tongue out in disgust, but quickly shook his head and ran towards the village to see if the occupants were alright.

It was his job as a Star Warrior to protect the townspeople, correct? But, then again, they would blame him like they always did.

...

"Why would they fight?" Fumu's voice could hardly be heard over the loud fighting in Kabu's Valley as she yelled. She had instantly come when she couldn't find Sir Meta Knight anywhere, and since he was probably off fighting somewhere, she came here for advice.

"Sis is right!" yelled Bun, who had come with Fumu, one of the reasons being to not stay around Dedede. When it came to horrible accidents, even surreal ones, him and Kirby were the top ones on his hit list, next to Fumu herself. "I saw them not that long ago! They were inseparable!"

"The demon who did this must have studied their characteristics," bellowed Kabu, his voice louder than usual. "Someone who could gain their trust easily. But also someone who is smart and manipulative enough to make the best of friends part from each other."

"A genius demon beast," said Bun, smirking. "Never would've seen that one coming. Who knew?" He turned to Fumu, the smirk still on his face. "Hey, sis, you think that he's smarter than you?"

Fumu sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Bun, that's impossible. No one in Pupu Village has ever had his or her IQ go over 162," she said, then added, when Bun opened his mouth, "Except Escargon, who surprisingly has his IQ up to 163. Ignoring his weirdness and evil. And the fact that Dedede constantly bashes his skull everyday."

Suddenly, a voice cut through the air like ice: "Well, how's 174 for ya, sweetie?"

Bun and Fumu stiffened in surprise as they spun around to look at the stranger. He was definitely not from Pupu Village, in fact, he looked like Kirby, except without his arms.

He wore simple jester attire; a hat, one half being blue and one half being red. The blue was decorated with circles, the red with triangles. It even had the cotton balls at the ends.

He wore a bow as well; a large red velvet bow that matched his brown shoes perfectly. He had to large eyes with purple pupils that shined as if they were made of glitter. He was purplish pink, and his cheeks were colored a lighter pink, also similar to Kirby.

His expression was similar to the one Joe wore whenever he bothered Silica. Fumu wasn't fond of that expression, but it looked adorable on the stranger, especially since he was somehow balancing on a beach ball with one foot, but was still fairly shorter than Dedede. He was possibly around Escargon's size when on the ball.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he said, amused. "Sorry if I startled you. I didn't think I would scare you like that."

"Never mind that," said Fumu, staring at the stranger, trying to keep a cold attitude. "Who are you?"

The stranger pouted.

"You'd think that king would tell his subjects that a visitor was coming to stay as a worker," he harrumphed.

Bun laughed, even though he, too, had been surprised by the creature's sudden appearance, and even Fumu had to smile at the irony, and he said what was on both of their minds. "Trust me, I've lived with that guy my whole life and I'm still not used to him."

The visitor smiled, his whole face brightening up. For a moment, he seemed to forget what he was doing, in a trance. And then he was back. His eyes still fixed on the two, he bowed the best he could with his short stature. The best he could do was stand on the tips of his feet and lean forward.

"The name's Marx! Your dysfunctional king asked me to be his court jester not a long time ago. Pleasure to meet ya!"

Fumu blinked. Traveling court jesters often passed by. They were either hysterically and boisterously funny, or insanely polite. Marx had managed to find a line between the two personalities and had managed to do both. As he continued bouncing on the ball, he squinted at the two.

"You're the two kids that belong to that Prime Minister guy," he said with a hint of excitement in his voice as he jumped higher on the beach ball. "Fumu and Bun!"

Both children stepped back in surprise,as Fumu swung a protective arm in front of Bun.

"H-how do you know us?" asked Bun, but he seemed excited even under the circumstances. It was Marx's turn to look surprised.

"How could I not?" he asked, a hint of dramatization in his voice. "You two participated in the defeat of Nightmare, yup yup! The entire universe is talking about it, even though it happened about a year ago. News like that spreads like wildfire."

Fumu looked down, both smiling and trying to block out the demon's horrendous face, screaming and twisting from the effect of the Star Rod. She still had visions of him, and they usually weren't pretty. "W-well... yeah, we did, but the whole town did, too. We would've never made it if they hadn't agreed."

Marx nodded in agreement. "And that's why Popstar is probably the most famous planet in the universe."

"Wait," interrupted Bun. "You heard of us, but what about Kirby?"

Marx looked seemed to gesture at the sky with his head/body, and looked at the sun and moon.

"One of the reasons I've come here is because I always wanted to meet him. I've heard the legends about him when I was younger from my-" He choked a bit as if struggling to say this- "mother. Me and my siblings were all fans."

Fumu stepped forward cautiously. "Why do you talk about that like it was a while ago?"

Marx looked down from the sky, stammering. "I-I haven't seen them in a while. They probably still want to meet him. They never give up anything." He forced a smile, but it didn't seem innocent anymore. It seemed angry. "Anyways, I think Kirby might solve this sun and moon battle."

Fumu crossed her arms. "You think it's a battle?"

Marx stared at her with an unimpressed expression worthy of a face palm. "You're a person with such a high IQ, but you can't see something that's right in front of your face."

"What?!" she yelled

Marx looked up again, this time with a dominant look on his face, ignoring Fumu's angry out burst. "Anyways, Kirby is our only hope to stopping the sun and moon's battle. He needs to ask the comet NOVA for help!"

"N-NOVA...?" asked Bun. "What the heck's that?"

"The wishing star," said Fumu silently. "I thought it didn't exist..."

"Many people thought that Kirby and Nightmare didn't exist," said Marx, looking smug. "But they're quite real, don't you think?"

Fumu stared at Marx. "How do you know?" He smiled his innocent smile again.

"A friend of mine got all of the stars. Also, I studied NOVA as well. As you know, I have an IQ of 174."

"Is that even possible?" asked Bun. "Also, you didn't answer my question."

"No one cares about your question!" yelled an annoyed Fumu. She turned her attention back to Marx. "Who's this 'friend?'"

"Her name is Yume." Marx sat on the beach ball, suddenly engrossed with the floor for a weird reason. "She's back at her planet, a few planets from here. I visited it before I came here."

"What was her wish?"

"To get rid of her Nightmares," he said, his eyes closed. "And that worked out pretty well, right, Fumu-san?"

Fumu shivered. "There's no such a thing as no nightmares."

"Hm, you're telling me."

"What?"

"What?" repeated Marx quickly, a huge grin replacing the blank stare that was on his face a few moments earlier.

"... Never mind."

Marx expertly jumped back to his feet on his ball, not even struggling a little to gain his balance. This caused Fumu to smile.

"You're good."

"Thank you." Marx winked. "You're a genius. This'll be nothing for ya."

Fumu laughed and turned to face Kabu. She waved good bye. "Thank you, Kabu! We'll stop the sun and moon from fighting!"

"Should we greet NOVA for you?" asked Bun humorously. He was shocked when Kabu answered.

"Yes," said Kabu in a surprisingly flat tone. "I haven't seen him in many centuries. Also, thank him for the wish."

"What wish?"

"It will know."

Bun shrugged as Fumu gestured for the boys to follow.

"We should go to Kawasaki's first," she said, a bit reluctantly. "Hopefully he won't have any too spicy food for him."

"Yeah!" Bun yelled, causing Fumu to flinch and Marx to roll a foot back with his ball. "Race ya!" As he took off, Fumu gave an exasperated sigh.

"Sorry about him," she told Marx. "He's an idiot at times."

"Hey, you're mean!" yelled Bun from a few yards away. As Fumu chased off after him, Marx stared at Kabu.

"You were created with NOVA?" he asked with a hushed voice.

Kabu remained silent, which presumably meant he was.

"You know about mom?" he said, his voice breaking.

No answer.

"Please, you have to tell me!"

"As you told Fumu, 'You're a person with such an IQ, but you can't see something that's right in front of your face,'" he answered, with a bit of smugness.

"Wh- what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Marx, are you coming?!" yelled Fumu, holding a struggling Bun.

"Yeah, in a while!"

"Well, hurry up!" added Bun.

Marx turned to Kabu.

"Will... will I have a good end?"

"That is up to you," said Kabu, almost with concern, which was strange, even for him. "Will you make the right choice, or will you die, never knowing what happened to your family? They're still alive somewhere, you know."

Marx stared at Kabu, then nodded, a soft smile on his face.

"Th... thank you."

"..."

"MARX! HURRY UP, ALREADY!" screamed Bun. He had given up the struggling, so he was on the ground with his sister behind him. "I'M HUNGRY!"

"If I had a penny..." muttered Fumu. "For every time you were ever rude to a stranger... I'd be richer than Dedede."

"S-sorry!" yelled Marx, rolling on his ball. He moved quickly for a boy his size. That was rolling on a ball.

"So, Dedede isn't a charmer?"

"No," said Fumu as they walked to Pupu Village ignoring the banging from the sun and moon fighting. "He has to smash at least one of his subjects with a hammer everyday, that subject particularly being Escargon, his right hand man, and also a doctor."

"I wouldn't want to be him," he muttered, taking his mind off of Kabu. "Even if he has a higher IQ than you."

As the three children were out of earshot, Kabu sighed a hollow sigh.

"A genius demon beast," he muttered softly. "Who knew?"

...

"Wooww! Kirby, they got new fish on sale at Kawasaki's!" Kirby stared at Gooey and giggled. The blob was a huge fan for fish, and eating them meant heaven for him. In fact, when he first met Kine, Kirby had to hold him back to keep him from snagging him with his tongue and eating him alive.

But now onlookers were staring at them, as they always did whenever they wanted to blame Kirby for something. And then it happened.

**"Make a wish- it'll be your last." Crossa De Lena, possible story quote**

**Author's Note: I'll be letting you guys know which chapters I updated. I'm adding Gooey in these later chapters (because he's awesome), and I'll be adding much more detail. Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, Kirby, look what you've done!"

"Nightmare is exacting his revenge because of you!"

"Did you eat Mayor Len's sheep?!"

"He had to eat SOMETHING, of course! He probably ate Waddle Doo!"

...Yep. Pupu Village was such a peaceful and understanding place.

As Cappies gathered around Kirby, accusing him falsely of the situation, and other situations that had nothing to do with the sun and moon, Kirby looked both confused, as he usually did, and unimpressed, a new expression he gave the Cappies whenever they acted immaturely around him. He learned the expression, of course, from Fumu.

But, as their accusations became boring, he hardly paid attention to them. In fact, he dropped the 'unimpressed' expression he had immediately and stared at the sun and moon, and, as the sky changed from day to night and vice versa, he wondered whether he should've been eating or sleeping.

Surprisingly, he preferred sleeping at the moment, but this was because he was knocked out of his sleep, twice, while he had an amazing dream about a fusion between watermelons and maxim tomatoes. He smiled as he thought about this, and was snapped back into the real world when Poppy Bros. Jr and Bronto Burt suddenly appeared in front of him, standing on guard as if protecting him from them.

"Leave him alone!" yelled Poppy Bros. Jr, stretching his hands in front of him. "I swear, if you try to stampede him again..."

"Step away from the alleged perpetrator!" yelled Chief Borun, putting his hand on his revolver. "It isn't legal to protect the guilty!"

"Argh, you people are so annoying sometimes! Especially you, Tokkori!" yelled Bronto Burt, his eyebrows arched deeper than usual as Tokkori yelled "HEY!" loudly. Stepping forward, he readied his wings to ram into any Cappy any area two feet away. Although this was a small move, more than half of the crowd took at least a step back. They knew what could happen if he lost his temper. And he lost his temper VERY easily.

But before another person could make another move, Cappies stepped back from behind Kirby, more out of disgust than respect. As the walk completely cleared, Dedede could be shown walking with Escargon, Bandana Dee, and Sir Meta Knight and his knaves, who seemed to be getting more respect than the king himself. Waddle Dees pointed spears at the Cappies who wouldn't stepped back, so most Cappies were looking at him with fearful expressions.

From Dedede's car, Lololo, Lalala, and Fumu and Bun's parents could be seen. They seemed to be trying to have calmed the king down, but everybody new such an action was impossible.

"Annoying?" said Dedede with a twisted smirk, taking out his mallet. "Kirby here has brought nothing but misfortune into our land. What good did he bring, zoi?"

"With all due respect, your majesty," said Bronto Burt, his voice filled with venom as he hovered above Kirby. "Aren't you the one who's brought 'misfortune' here? How many people might have died from those demon beasts of yours? And your treachery on the Halberd? Hm?"

Dedede growled, raising his mallet above his shoulder.

"It's not like I meant that! I didn't even mean for Kirb-" he paused, turning red in embarrassment. "I- I mean..."

"Well?! Say it! You wanted to say something, didn't you?! Don't you always smash people in the head if they disobey or interrupt you?!" Bronto Burt was basically on fire, possibly more than Dedede. "Didn't you have a delivery system in YOUR OWN THRONE ROOM?"

Dedede, now glowering at Bronto Burt, caused both Escargon and Bandana Dee to step back.

"Calm down, your majesty!"said Pamu, but his voice was barely a whimper from behind the machine. "You're glowing!"

"Dear I wouldn't-" started Memu.

"SILENCE!" roared Dedede at him, then grabbed Bronto Burt's right wing. "YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ANYMORE, ZOI!"

"SO THEN WHAT?!" yelled Bronto Burt, hovering the best he could with one wing in front of Dedede's face. "THEN I CAN'T SLEEP? OR EAT? YOU CAN'T CONTROL MY LIFE!"

Dedede, out of anger, threw Bronto Burt back a few feet, as Poppy Bros Jr chased after him, then glared at Kirby. But before he could yell again, a hushed voice could be heard from the crowd.

"My, my. Pupu Village is the most hostile civilization in Popstar? I thought Cappies were peaceful creatures, mmhmm."

Dedede's eyes widened, and before anyone could react, an object struck his arm, making him yelp (in a manly way). The object was a beach ball, but before anyone could burst out laughing at the king, a creature popped up from behind him, chuckling. As the creature became visible, Meta Knight inhaled loudly, but quickly turned and left, with a confused Blade and Sword following.

"Thanks," he said, the grin on his face getting bigger. "I hadn't done that in a while."

Escargon and Bandana Dee snorted loudly as they saw the king's expression. But they lost their smiles completely when Dedede glared back at them.

"Who are you, de gesu?" Escargon asked after a moment of silence, stepping forward.

The creature sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "This is even more disappointing. Your king even forgot he was getting a jester in the first place? Just disappointing, yup yup."

Dedede, realizing who this was, suddenly changed his attitude to welcoming, like he usually did whenever he wanted to catch a woman's attention.

"Ah, that's correct, zoi! I ordered you to come serve me after the defeat of Nightmare!" he said.

Escargon stared at him, a blank expression on his face as Bandana Dee stifled his laughter. "And you were planning to tell me... when...?" Dedede ignored this, and glared at Marx.

"You're one year late, zoi! What was with the hold up? And why don't you have any arms?"

As Fumu and Bun broke through the crowd from the same place the ball had come from, Marx sighed.

"Well, it's quite hard to travel past over twenty planets, pengi," muttered Marx, his face darkening at the last question. "Especially since recently, your sun and moon are fighting. I might be able to find a solution to that."

Dedede scoffed and crossed his arms, and as he did, the Cappies, including Pamu, Memu, and Lololo and Lalala, lost their tension and started to slowly depart and go back to their jobs and homes, ignoring the sun and moon, who were still fighting, their argument being heard over the fighting. Gooey, in fact, who still hadn't reacted, only remained, but he turned back to gawk at the fish and bribe Kawsaki to give it to him.

"If you can, I'll hire you immediately." Marx nodded solemnly, and was about to speak, when suddenly, his face brightened when he noticed Kirby. Precautiosly, as if he was a ticking time bomb, he walked towards him, eyes filled with doubt.

"Y-you're Kirby... right? My name's Marx. U-umm... nice to meet you... Warpstar Knight...?"

"Warpstar Knight?" asked Fumu. "Who's he?"

"It's his given knight name. One that seems to match his fighting style perfectly, correct?... Uh..."

Marx looked in front of him awkwardly as Kirby hovered in front of him, then suddenly, reached for a tip of his hat. Grabbing it, he shook it, like you would shake a hand and said, between his inhaled breath, "Mar...poyo." He let go of his breath, and smiled, jumping up and down.

"Marpoyo! Marpoyo!"

Marx laughed as he jumped from his ball. He was about Kirby's height, Fumu noticed, but he seemed to be much more fragile, as if he were glass and he could break any minute. In fact, he flinched when Kirby hugged him, as if it hurt to be touched.

"You... you don't care if I'm armless...?" whispered Marx, his eyes lowered as if he didn't want to look at Kirby straight. Kirby shook his head and giggled.

"Who cares-poyo?!" he said, releasing him in an instant. Something changed Marx that day. Whether it was because of Kirby's hospitality or because of the simple 'Who cares?' didn't matter. It changed him, deep in his soul, and he himself knew at that moment he would never be the same. He wouldn't be hated among everyone. He would always have Kirby.

And he smiled, instead of being in shock. He smiled, and said five simple words:

"We're gonna be best friends!"

...

"Sir, why are you worried?" asked Blade, once they were out of earshot.

"I..." Meta Knight shook his head, as if trying to clear it. "I can't believe she was correct..."

He stopped pacing and faced Blade and Sword.

"Don't worry about me. The new boy will have to be watched closely. We need to go on that mission with them. We have to go to Nova."

"I thought Nova didn't exist, Sir," said Sword.

"Me, too," muttered Meta Knight, thoughtfully putting his hand on the hilt of Galaxia. "We all thought so... Go ahead, both of you. I need to think for a while."

Blade and Sword stared at him, then stared at each other, and hesitantly walked away. As soon as they were gone, the same familiar light from his dream materialized in front of him, and although she was faceless, he could tell she was staring right through him.

"Never decline a leader's advice," she said coldly, crossing her bright arms. "Sad. You gave that advice to Kirby not long ago."

"He's here," whispered Meta Knight, hardly listening to her. "But he's younger than I thought, possibly the same age as Magolor. And probably connected to Magolor, too. Why do these spirits target such young creatures?"

"Oh, they don't target only children," she answered. "They target gods, too. You'll find out which ones. They're probably the ones that you're familiar with."

"Is the child pure evil?" he asked angrily, almost accusingly. "Is that why he is possessed?"

"Sir Meta Knight!" yelled Dedede's voice, coming from his vehicle. "We need you at the castle! And you'd better be there if you know what's good for you!"

Meta Knight sighed as the light chuckled.

"He knows you can handle him, right?" she said.

"Yeah, right," answered Meta Knight with a smirk forming on his face for the first time in a while. It was almost memorable. "We'll meet later, when I gather more information. Also, thank you."

Rebecca's smile became visible again.

"You're welcome. Anything to keep those spirits from possessing and destroying so many."

As Meta Knight nodded, walking away, Rebecca sighed, disappearing.

"It's too bad," she muttered, as she began vanishing. "Nobody remembers what the possessed were like before."

**"The possession of anything begins with the mind." Bruce Lee**

**Author's Note: Sorry about the short chapter. This has been edited, but I might make it longer in the future. (if you want it soon, you can let me know ^^) Thanks!**

**Author's Note: This is a shorter chapter than the rest. Sorry. ^^'**


	4. Chapter 4

It was official.

Kirby had made yet another best friend in a mere twenty seconds. Not that it pleased Dedede, though. He was horrified.

"Oh, it's not like the jester could destroy Kirby, even if he tried," muttered Escargon, attempting to calm him down before being bashed in the head. "He's probably cuter than Kirby himself."

"Shut up! He would've at least come up with genius plans, unlike yours, zoi!" Dedede yelled back.

Escargon crossed his arms at this, rolling his eyes.

"If you want me to be sympathetic, you should at least try to compliment me once in a while, de gesu. You're getting to be as evil to me as that queen was to her right hand man... or boy. At least, I think he was a boy. I wouldn't want to be him."

"You're comparing me to that old hag?" roared Dedede, attempting to hit him with his mallet, missing, the cause of that being Escargon's amazing ducking, despite his shell. He gave up after that, surprisingly, putting the mallet on his shoulder.

"Although, I have to admit, she was pretty, and he seemed more loyal to her than you are to me."

"Are you calling her an old hag, or pretty? Honestly, you say one thing one moment and then forget about it the n- OW!"

This ending was caused by him being smashed into the ground by Dedede's mallet.

"Shut up!" repeated Dedede, crossing his arms as well, in an almost stubborn way. "It's not like you're any better, zoi!"

"Your majesty," said a voice from behind the throne room's doorway, catching both of their attention.

Turning, they saw Sir Arthur, opening the door slightly. After a while, he gained enough confidence to enter, bowing.

"I apologize if I bothered you in any way, your Majesty."

"Well, you have!" yelled Dedede. "Now what do you want?!"

Sir Arthur got up calmly, unlike others, who would usually argue with the king and get blasted out of the castle.

"We are holding a conference in the throne room. The jester is relaying his knowledge of the comet Nova to help us stop the Sun and Moon from fighting. You need to come. Both of you," he added, as he saw Escargon's excited expression.

Dedede scoffed, dropping his arms.

"Why do I have to come? It's not like I have to go with Kirby."

Escargon rolled his eyes.

"Ignorant and lazy. Your Majesty, it's just a conference. Besides, only Kirby, Marx, the knights, and you and me are going to be there."

"Exactly, zoi!" Dedede looked disgusted. "The pink ball will be there!"

Escargon sighed and turned back to Arthur, who was beginning to look uncomfortable.

"We'll be there," he said. "Count on it, de gesu."

...

"YOU AND YOUR LIES!" roared Dedede, bashing Escargon's head once more.

Not only had the knights, along with Marx and Kirby come, but so had Silica, Joe, Fumu, Bun, Pamu, Memu, Lololo, Lalala,Grill, Chuchu and Gooey and Blob, friends of Kirby.

And at the moment, Gooey had the joy of attempting to eat King Dedede's arm. Dedede had flung him off immediately.

"Don't blame me!" Escargon swatted Dedede's mallet away. "How was I supposed to know that the whole group was supposed to come? I'm actually surprised Kirby has this many supporters."

"Marx?!"

Grill flew over on her broom, along with her three onion friends, eyes wide.

"I can't believe it! So you finally decided to come to Popstar!"

Marx laughed and jumped off his ball.

"Grill-chan! I haven't seen you in so long!"

He jokingly leaned towards Grill in a flirty way.

"So, Grill-chan, you done something cute these days~?"

Grill pushed Marx away, but laughed.

"Cute? I'm not cute, jester! I'm actually studying magic! I might actually whoop you're butt someday!"

Marx guffawed.

"Yeah, right! Stick to staying beautiful, would ya?"

"You know Grill?" asked Fumu, next to her, Blob and Gooey, the latter looking vaguely upset.

"Of course I do!"

Marx jumped on his ball again, grinning.

"We were friends ever since we were babies. Much like puffballs, Kirby's species, many species age slowly. For instance, in my species' years, I'm supposedly fifteen years old. In human years, I'm fifteen thousand!"

Grill snorted.

"You old geezer." She turned to Fumu. "I'm only fourteen thousand!"

"Humans age slowly, don't you think?" Fumu said, lifting an eyebrow.

"Tell me about it," muttered Marx. "But their species is amazing. Did you know humans from this universe age like us, unlike humans from Earth?"

"You and your nerd facts," giggled Grill, then put a hand on his head. "No offense."

Marx turned red, a nerve popping on his head.

"Hey!"

Gooey and Blob giggled, hopping over to Marx.

"Papa!" they cried in unison.

Marx sweat dropped, lifting an eyebrow.

"Papa?"

"Oh, don't worry," said Fumu, trying to drag Gooey and Blob over to Kirby, but they had an iron stance. They were literally planted into the ground in front of Marx, smiling up at him with beaming eyes.

"When they met Grill, they called her Papa, too. And don't remind me of the day they met Kirby. They were basically LOVING him, calling him 'Papa Happy.' But we never found out what that meant since they actually started to call Kirby by his name, and they couldn't, or didn't, want to tell us what it meant. They'll call you Marx later when they get used to your name. But Gooey can speak normally after a while. He's just nervous of you."

"Get ready for the conference, de gesu!" yelled Escargon, cowering away from King Dedede.

"Jester!" said Dedede, pointing at Marx. "You'd better have something interesting for pulling me in this, zoi!"

"Oh, I do, Your Majesty," he said, bowing. "Don't worry."

"Hm. As likable as ever," said Grill, once Dedede's back was turned. "Just like the old Marx. We'll save a seat for you."

As the magician flewaway, and Fumu ran over to her family and Kirby, Marx looked at Gooey and Blob, whose smiles were wider than ever.

" 'Papa Happy?' " he asked, amused.

Gooey giggled again, tongue out, winking.

"Papa see!" chirped Gooey.

"Papa see now!" added Blob, spinning around her older brother.

"He be happy!"

"He smile!"

"Hee hee hee!" they giggled simultaneously.

And, much to Marx's confusion, they hopped away, sitting right between Kirby and Chuchu, and cuddling them both to a point where Chuchu punched Gooey.

Marx caught Kirby's gaze and smiled, but quickly turned around to roll towards Grill.

'Either complete idiots or complete geniuses,' he thought, inwardly chuckling. 'Just like me.'


	5. Chapter 5

"The conference has begun, de gesu!" yelled Escargon, signalling everyone to sit down, except Marx.

"All right," said Dedede, crossing his arms. "What do you have that's so 'urgent?'"

Marx cleared his throat as everyone had settled down, rolling on his beach ball over to the king.

"Your Majesty, you have noticed the battle between the sun and moon, have you not?"

Dedede rolled his eyes, sitting down on his throne.

"It isn't a battle. It's just a disagreement, zoi. They said so themselves."

"You surely don't believe them, do you?"

Marx had made his voice smoother, so it almost sounded as if he were manipulating him, similar to the way Customer Service had done a year earlier. Of course, neither Dedede nor Escargon had noticed this.

"Quit saying that," said Escargon, squeezing his way into the conversation. "Why do you think it's a battle?"

Marx jumped off of his ball, head low.

"Kabu himself had said so. You aren't really doubting the prophet that knew Kirby would come? The same one that secures his warpstar?"

"You think I listen to that hunk of rock, zoi?"

"You should. He was created by the same being that created Nova."

"Really?!" yelled Fumu, jumping up in surprise. After a long silence with a few concerned and confused looks, she sat down, face red.

"Who's Nova? And how the hell's he supposed to help?" asked Dedede.

Marx sighed, jumping up and sitting on the ball.

"You don't know about Nova, and don't even respect Kabu? What's next, you can't read?"

Bun snorted, but just when he was about to tell Marx that he COULDN'T read, Pamu covered his mouth, shushing him. Dedede, on the other hand, didn't notice him, and turned red.

"Of... of course I can read!"

"Oh, really? What's the letter after F?"

"Triangle!"

Marx lifted an eyebrow at Fumu, who wrung her wrists.

"As I was SAYING, Nova is the answer to all our problems."

"If he's so popular," said Escargon. "Why wasn't his name mentioned in Popstar, much less Pupu Village?"

"Nova does not cross your galaxy often," Marx replied bluntly. "In fact, if people did not find all the stars, Nova wouldn't cross this galaxy at all."

"'All the stars?'" asked Dedede. "You talk about this as if you're familiar with all this, zoi."

Marx's face darkened in a way that caused Escargon to hide behind Dedede, and Dedede to go back in his chair. His voice was suddenly two octaves lower.

"You memorize a lot when you talk and read about something over and over again."

"G-G-GUARDS, ZOI!" sputtered Dedede, surprisingly hugging Escargon.

Immediately, one after the other, Waddle Dees, along with Waddle Doo, entered the throne room, pointing their spears at Marx, whose face was still darkened. Kirby yelped and ran past the knights, standing in front of Marx like a protective shield. Marx looked surprised, as if he hadn't noticed what he had done, and suddenly saw Kirby in front of him.

"Kirby...?!"

"Stand out of the way, Kirby!" yelled Waddle Doo, his voice emitting out of nowhere from the crowd of Waddle Dees. "We don't want to hurt you!"

"Poyo!" yelled Kirby stubbornly.

"Hmph, take him, too, zoi," said Dedede, waving his hand at the Waddle Dees. "You should seal him in the dungeon. That'll take care of him."

But before one Waddle Dee could move, tears started forming in Marx's eyes and he started sniffing, catching them off guard.

"Be kind to him," said Marx in a cuter tone, directing his attention at the Waddle Dees but clearly speaking to Dedede. He suddenly widened his eyes, his posture changing, and put his chest on the ball in a dog-beg kind of way, eyes looking up sadly at the king and his right hand man.

He was completely adorable.

"He's the only one capable of stopping this battle. It wouldn't be nice to us all, wouldn't you think? Hurting Kirby is a big no-no~!"

He got up, turning to the Waddle Dees with the same sad expression.

"Besides, you wouldn't want your Waddle Dees to hurt somebody, would you?"

He twirled on his ball twice, stopping to face the king, making anyone who wasn't completely shocked have a nose bleed.

"So don't do it!" He winked. "Okay~?"

"Incredible!" whispered Silica over to Knuckle Joe. "He's using his cuteness against the king, who isn't the bigger threat!"

"I'd totally do that if I was cute," said Joe, with a boisterous grin. "But instead, I got the looks of a hottie!"

Silica rolled her eyes, scoffing.

"Yeah, right."

"You're just jealous because you're not blessed with these looks."

"Sh-shut up!"

"He is cute," interrupted Fumu, poking her brother, who had fallen asleep in the middle of the conversation. "But why is he helping Kirby? And why the sudden change of attitude?"

Marx giggled, something that would probably cause another nose bleed.

"HE needs to ask the comet Nova for help. He's the only being in this universe that can collect all the stars and make the wish."

"Wish?" asked Grill, suddenly putting her legs down from the desk she was sitting by and sitting up. "What do you mean by wish?"

"Nova grants one wish per person, but another person can make the wish for them. That's where you come in, Fumu. Nova probably can't understand Kirby, and Kirby is too pure-hearted. Nova answers wishes that seem selfish, or ARE selfish."

"And why can't I make a wish?" asked Dedede greedily.

"Because you can't," replied Marx. "That's that."

"But-"

"If you make a wish, it'd better be about being skinnier. Or smarter. Or actually respected."

"Wh-what?"

"I'm saying Kirby deserves the wish."

"And me?"

Marx shrugged his nonexistent shoulders and gestured to the Waddle Dees using his foot.

"You mercilessly asked your guards to take me to a dungeon, along with a hero, who is an innocent baby. I wouldn't call that deserving."

"There's a reason-!"

"A BABY."

Dedede scoffed.

"Why am I arguing with my servant? Go to this 'Nova' guy! See if I care! In fact, take whoever you want!"

With one last harrumph, he marched out of the throne room, Escargon nervously trailing behind him. Marx grinned, then turned to Kirby excitedly.

"Hear that, Kirby? We can go!"

Kirby poyo-ed happily a couple off times, bouncing up and down before running over to Fumu, Bun, and the others. As Pamu and Memu kept on rejecting the thoughts of going into space because it was too 'dangerous,' Marx turned to the knights' section of the throne room, where only Sir Meta Knight remained.

He smiled. A sadistic, eerie smile that Sir Meta Knight had never seen on any little boy he had ever met.

"You'd better come with us, Sir Meta Knight," he said, his voice tone lower. "You want to see HIM again, don't you?"

As Meta Knight stiffened, Marx's face changed back to normal, and he rolled over to Kirby, giggling cutely. The others hadn't noticed anything.

They didn't even notice the red color Meta Knight's eyes had changed into as Marx laughed again, a laugh too real to be evil.

But as Kirby saw the red tint in his eyes, he turned away, exiting the throne room in a rush. He didn't think to much about it, though.

He was having fun with his new friend.


	6. Chapter 6

_ Marx quietly turned to page eight hundred and forty nine on the book labeled _Ancient Creations. _Once again, he stared around the room that he was to stay in to be force-studying. If a normal person were to stay in the room as long as Marx had, that person would've completely lost control._

_ But not Marx._

_ At least, not visibly._

_ Mentally and emotionally, he was a wreck, and usually took his blind rage out on a toy or two that he had to fix later, behind the Queen's back before she found out he had broken it. Studying clockwork, anatomy, and structures, he knew a thing or two about fixing a toy._

_ Of course, the book he was reading at the moment was read by him at least fifteen thousand times._

_ Along with a whole library of books on history, mathematics, chemistry, etc. But, of course, no books that a normal fifteen year old would enjoy. Of course._

_ There were only a few toys, as mentioned earlier, here and there, a mix of stuffed animals that he would tinker with for, the most, four hours._

_If he was lucky, they'd let him play five hours._

_ Only three people were allowed to visit him from the outside world, people who he had befriended before: a young Halcandran named Magolor, who taught him magic and entertained him, usually (playfully) arguing with him, a small witch named Grill with her three onion friends, who often amused him with her, what he called, 'incompetence,' and a young spider-like being named Taranza, who Marx usually compared himself to._

_ The large room he was in was in fact fit for a king, which was ironic, considering how much he wanted to leave it._

_ It had a large bed with more-than-comfortable sheets and giant pillows, two desks which were covered with paper, notes, and pens, and colorful paint covered the walls: neon green, purple, blue, red, everything. But it's not like he saw them that well with hardly any lights in the room._

_ He was only allowed to leave the room under a few purposes: the Queen was asking- no, DEMANDING- him to tell her the books text, word for word. If he got it wrong, one word wrong, he was sentenced to an even more uncomfortable room, that had only the light of the candle she gave him to use to read until he got it right._

_She would pull him by his hair (or whatever stump of hair he had), no matter how much he hated being touched and it hurt him, and ask him if he had any distractions at all, to which he'd reply teary-eyed that he just didn't have enough time and apologize to her._

_ The queen was a cruel, sickening person, a woman about a head taller than him with long, flowing lavender hair, pink skin, and glowing red eyes that looked as if they'd tortured thousands of poor souls by just looking at them. She would make millions laugh at his pain and mistakes, along with her, not with him._

_She would make him suffer._

_ He didn't know why his mother had abandoned him to her._

_ And why he had to listen to her._

_ The second place he'd be if not there, would be the cell of what he called the 'Frozen Knight.' A lavender knight with a lance and shield, he had been trapped in the crystal because of his powers five thousand years before Marx was born. Marx didn't know why, but he always felt comforted whenever he went to the knight._

_ There were many rumors that the knight was a traitor of the GSA, betraying Sir Arthur himself, who he was fairly close to at the time. But Marx didn't care. _

_ In fact, each time he saw him, he swore he saw a small smile form on his lips behind his mask, even though he was frozen. Maybe it was his crazy imagination._

_ The third place he visited, the one he visited the most, was a secret room that was behind the 'Frozen Knight's' crystal. He'd found it when he was just nine (thousand) years old._

_ It had started when he had heard a voice humming as he visited the knight. As he went behind the crystal, he saw a door he hadn't seen before. It had horrifyingly deep scratch marks, as if the creature imprisoned in the room had put up a fight._

_ But this didn't faze Marx at all. Instead, he continued walking to the door, the humming getting louder, until finally, as he stopped next to the door, it stopped, as if sensing his presence._

_ "I'm sorry..." the voice suddenly said, as his voice got louder by each word. "I'm sorry, onee-sama. I'm sorry, tou-chan. I'm sorry, okaa-san. I'm sorry, nii-nii..."_

_(translates to, I'm sorry, sister, daddy, mommy, and brother, all in the cutest form)_

_ Suddenly, loud scratching could be heard on the other side of the door, followed by a series of crashes, not scaring Marx either._

_ "I'm sorry, Kirby. I'm sorry, nii-nii. I'm sorry, Terra. I'm sorry, nii-nii. I'm sorry, nii-nii. I'm sorry, nii-nii! I'M SORRY, NII-NII!"_

_ This last shriek caused Marx to step back in surprise. He had never heard a voice so scared, much more than his own._

_ Suddenly, his voice changed, to a much older version of his voice._

_ "Why are you apologizing? You didn't know. I hurt you. I hurt HIM. HIM. Why did I hurt you?!"_

_ His voice changed back to normal, laughing._

_ "But the worst you did was mock me from time to time-"_

_ "WHY?!" he interrupted himself. "WHY!? WHY WHY WHY WHY?!"_

_ Younger Marx listened more intently now. It was like a show, but you couldn't see the characters._

_ "I wanted to make you happy, nii-nii. You were really sad. HE made you cry. You were always angry at me. And never smiled... You were mean, too..."_

_ Marx heard the voice sob and laugh syllables that weren't understandable, and suddenly he started scream-sobbing, until finally, Marx nudged the door._

_ "Hello?" he said with his normal voice, not a cautious one that a normal person would've used. _

_ The scream-sobbing stopped immediately._

_ "Hello... hello... What is this hello? Nii-nii used it a lot."_

_ "A simple greeting. You should know this."_

_ "WELL, I DON'T!"_

_ Marx had sighed, peeking through the key hole._

_ "My, my. You are quite the charmer, aren't you?" he chuckled._

_ The creature inside had tried to poke his eye out, but Marx had backed away, giggling. He hadn't thought about it much that day, but everyday he came, he would hear the same thing, as if he were rehearsing something, or if he was a stuck tape recorder._

_ He asked the queen hesitantly who the creature was, and she answered with a blunt, "Darx is his name. Also, try not being an idiot around him. He could tear your guts out."_

_ Now that he thought about it, he couldn't comprehend what had happened that day. Darx was the same creature as him, for sure, only with hands, or wings, or whatever those things were. Marx had gone deeper in the book that had held species types, and soon enough, he had read about the Warpstar Knight, better known as Kirby. He read about his status, and how he was supposed to save the universe from peril. But, instantly after he had studied enough, he was sent to go to Popstar, the reasons why, unknown._

_And that's what led him to read 'Ancient Creations.' He had to learn about Nova. Before he messed up. And people would laugh at him again, and-_

_ "MARX!"_

_..._

Marx blinked, looking around. He was on the roof of the castle, staring at the sun and moon fighting.

As soon as he had recovered, he felt a force jab at his back. He screamed, a scream that almost made the whole castle jump, and turned around, suddenly coming face-to-face with Kirby.

Kirby had retreated a few steps, eying Marx with wide eyes.

"Marpoyo?"

Marx left eye twitched, something that would happen if somebody went too close to him.

"I-I'm fine," he said reassuringly, but it was clear he wasn't. "I just hate it when somebody... touches me."

Kirby gasped dramatically.

"Wha-poyo?!"

"Hey, hey, hey, it's fine. I just got nervous."

Kirby shook his head, in a non-believing way, reaching out to comfort him, until he hissed, to a point where he drew back his hand again. Marx looked at the floor, and each time the sun would come back, he could see a scared expression on Marx's face.

After a long, awkward silence, Marx spoke.

"Sorry. It just reminds me of something horrible. It's-

He was about to say 'It's nothing,' but stopped himself when Fumu and Bun ran onto the roof, their expressions revealing complete shock.

"Are you two alright?!" shouted Fumu, skidding to a halt next to Kirby. Bun, who wasn't so lucky, tripped on her foot and landed face-first next to Marx.

Marx uncomfortably stared at Bun, who got up, embarrassed, for a moment before answering.

"We're fine," he muttered. "I got a bit too sensitive."

Kirby nodded guiltily.

"Yeah-poyo."

"But it sounded like millions of camels screaming," said Bun, rubbing his head. "You managed to scream like that? Ha, that's freaky!"

Marx shifted on his feet and sighed.

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes."

He regained his posture as Bun pouted, then walked towards the latch that led towards the inside of the castle. Tears were forming on his eyes, but no one could see them.

"Why don't all people try that?" He inhaled heavily, then exhaled. "We're leaving in a while. Get ready to leave."

And he entered the castle, not giving any of the children a second glance.


	7. Chapter 7

Marx uncomfortably settled his ball outside the shuttle that they were supposed to leave on, next to Kirby, catching his eye and smiling, to which he smiled back.

"Hey, hey, hey, long time no see, Pinkie!" he said, a wide grin on his face that let Kirby know he was forgiven. Relieved, he laughed, and ran to the others.

They had waited the night (was it considered a night?) to sleep and pack and get ready, and soon enough, Pamu and Memu had agreed to let the children go, as long as they stayed safe. When Bun was out of earshot in front of the space shuttle, bragging loudly in front of Iroo, Honey, and Hohhe, Memu briskly whispered in Fumu's ear to keep an eye on Bun.

"I guess I'm the lucky one this time, huh, Hohhe!" he shouted, putting his arms behind his head. "A little more lucky than you, right?"

"Quit it!" yelled Hohhe. "You're so annoying sometimes!"

"I'll do my best," Fumu whispered back, an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Hey, Kirby!" shouted Tokkori, bonking Kirby on the head. "You're just gonna leave me?! You won't even leave me a good-bye present?"

Kirby sighed, shrugging. Tokkori was too hard to comprehend sometimes. One day he wanted you to leave him alone, and the next second, he wanted a present or two from you.

But didn't the present thing work the other way around...?

"Hmph! I should get paid! Doing all the dirty work while you idle around and- UWAH!"

This last part was caused by Gooey's tongue wrapping around Tokkori and throwing him over his head. He was followed closely by Blob.

"We can't go into space!" he said, sighing. "Our 'body atoms won't stick together, so we'll be reduced to nothing!' Papa would be sad!"

"Papa?" asked Kirby, tilting his head. Gooey was hard to understand, too.

"It's OK, Kirby!" he said, ignoring his question like he always did, shaking his hand with his tongue, leaving a small hint of saliva still stuck on Kirby's hand. "NEVER wash that hand! Leave the saliva on so you can always remember us!"

"Kirby not-" started Kirby, until Gooey started getting teary-eyed.

Blob frowned and comforted him by rubbing against him. Although she wasn't that good in her dialect as him, had a shorter tongue than his, and was fairly older than him, they were relatively close, almost as close as Lololo and Lalala. In fact, he would act as baby-like as her to make her feel better. It had almost become a habit for him, especially if he wanted to keep a secret or if he wanted to be 'mysterious.'

"I miss you already!" he sniffed. "Why do you have to go? You'll leave me alone to deal with Tokkori! I can't handle that and you know it!"

"Well, I'll treat you better when you stop trying to eat me!" yelled Tokkori, flinging spit off of him. "It's almost worst than cannibalism!"

"Shut up, I'm having a moment!"

"Kiirrrbyyyy~!"

Tokkori was suddenly thrown a side by a pink tentacle, and before he knew it, Kirby was glomped by Chuchu.

"Oh, Kirby! You weren't gonna leave without hugging me first?"

Kirby looked uncomfortable for a moment. Wouldn't anyone, if a squid randomly landed on your head, much less a 'cephalopod,' as Fumu sometimes referred her species to her as?

"No-poyo..." he said, smiling.

"My sweet!" said Gooey, nuzzling against Chuchu again. "Never mind, Kirby! I'll be fine! Go to... wherever you were going!"

Kirby nodded, walking away quickly as he realized that Chuchu had a nerve popping out on her forehead, turning red.

He didn't want to get involved in that anymore. He smiled again over the ruckus that Chuchu was causing to get away from Gooey as he realized again how much he had grown up.

...

...

"Gooey can talk like a regular child?" asked Marx as Kirby made his way back to him after he had said good-bye to everyone. "He talked to me like a baby."

"Poyo?" said Kirby, then shrugged. "You new."

"I'm new?" Marx kicked his ball onto the shuttle, almost carefully, as if the ball were priceless. "I don't trust a lot of people either. I was rejoiced when you decided to be my friend immediately. Why did you, by the way? Don't you need to learn about a person's characteristics?"

"Chara-poyo?"

Marx looked down, the dark look passing his face once again. This time it lingered around, but he looked angry, and didn't direct the anger at Kirby. Instead, he growled and bared a sharp row a fangs at the ground, until finally, he was snapped back into the real world.

"Sorry. I was remembering someone that was very mean to me."

"Who-poyo?"

"Eh, it was nobody. Some kind of dipshit that made a whole crowd of people turn against me. Call me a monster for not having any arms."

Kirby gasped, wanting to pet him, but then remembering Marx's scream.

"Mean-poyo!" he gasped instead, a sympathetic expression on his face.

Marx closed his eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't go crazy over it, K'? I'm not that good around crowds anyways. I just perform for children that have pure hearts, y'know?"

"Pure... poyo?"

"You know, someone who won't make fun of me. I can tell because-" He stopped himself, eyes wide, then looked at Kirby as if he had made a lethal mistake.

"N-never mind."

Kirby pouted, crossing his arms. Marx shook his head stubbornly.

"Don't look at me like that, OK? I'M the one who makes the faces."

Kirby stopped the pouting face, but continued to cross his arms (stumps?). From the entrance of the space shuttle, Dedede appeared.

"We're getting to leave, zoi!" he yelled, catching all of the people that were present's attention. "Any loser who wants to stay behind can stay!"

This statement led to an even angrier Hohhe.

"Hey, Kirby!" yelled a voice that Kirby recognized as Joe's. And instantly, the spike-haired boy and Silica came running in his direction.

"You weren't going to leave without saying good-bye, huh?" said Silica, smiling.

Kirby giggled, hugging both of them.

"No-poyo!"

He let them go, still beaming, and scratched his nose in a similar way to Joe.

"Bye-bye!" he said in a deeper voice, trying to mimic Joe, but instead making his voice crack. He rubbed his head, embarrassed as both of them chuckled.

"I'll try to contain Silica's evil self," said Joe, smirking. "She might get violent."

"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" Silica asked darkly.

"It means EXACTLY what you're doing right now."

Kirby sighed and walked away from the two before they could have a full-blown fight. Again.

Entering the shuttle, Dedede gave him a threatening glare as if saying, 'You make my subjects your friends, you mess with ME.'

But there was something else in his glare. Something that Kirby didn't manage to find out, because he bumped into Fumu while staring.

"Kirby, be careful," said Fumu, helping him up. "You could hurt yourself."

Kirby didn't listen to her, turning to look at Dedede again, but came face-to-face with Meta Knight.

"Kn-Kni?" he said.

"Sir Meta Knight? You're coming along as well?"

"Yes," said the blue knight, averting his gaze to the ground, which he didn't do often. "I have a wish of my own that needs granting."

"Is it selfish?" Fumu asked, nosy, as Blade and Sword walked into the ship as well, quickly entering the control room.

"You will find out, Fumu," said Meta Knight, before walking towards the control room.

Kirby looked over at the place where Dedede stood, but the dark expression on his face was gone, changed by the usual annoyed expression he was giving Escargon. Kirby shook his head before following his teacher into the control room.

Fumu stayed behind, eyes wandering around, cautious.

"...So this is how it feels like to have feet..." she muttered humorously, before reverting to her old posture, blinking, confused. Finally, she heard the shuttle shudder, and ran into the control room, leaving a dark aura behind her.


	8. Chapter 8

"Why do you look so upset?"

After getting past Popstar's gravitational pull and blasting into the outside atmosphere, Marx had asked this to Kirby. The puffball had suddenly and quickly looked extremely stressed, and this stress had immediately turned into immense depression.

"Hyper-poyo," he said, his voice low.

"Hyper?" asked Marx.

"The Hyper Zone," said Bun, attempting to snatch an onigiri from King Dedede. "Hey, don't hog them all to yourself!"

"You think I'll let you have food right away, zoi?" asked Dedede. "Selfish much, Bun?"

"Look who's talking!"

"Hyper Zone?" questioned Marx again, moving his beach ball around with his right foot, as if he couldn't keep still. "The place where we just passed by? Isn't that where you had that glorious victory against Zero? I thought his defeat was even better than Nightmare's. Why are you depressed about that? You should be happy!"

Kirby shuddered, shaking his head.

"Kirby hurt-poyo," he murmured, hugging himself. "No wanna-poyo."

Marx lifted an eyebrow, shocked.

"But he brought you so much pain," he said. "He brought so much pain to Pupupu Land."

"Pupupu Land?" asked Fumu, trying to pry Bun away from Dedede.

"That's what Popstar is commonly known as."

Marx fiddled even more with his beach ball.

"Your home can change between a star and planet. It's very rare, another one of it's famous traits. But, maybe I'll tell you about it later if you tell me why you so much remorse."

Kirby closed his eyes for a long time, and just when Marx thought he had fallen asleep, he spoke.

"Scream-poyo," he said, almost forcibly.

"Huh?"

"Zero-scream-poyo. Nightmare scream-poyo. Kirby bad-poyo."

"That's all?"

Kirby put his hand stumps up to his nonexistent ears. He remembered their words- words that would sink into your skin and wouldn't go away, because they were true.

Nightmare had calmly stated that he was fear itself, buried deep into their hearts; immortal, so he would return.

Zero hadn't said anything calmly.

Kirby clearly remembered Zero's corpse fall away when weak enough, and then say,

"Scream-poyo. Zero scream-poyo. Nightmare scream-poyo. Kirby bad-poyo."

"That's all?""

Kirby put his hand stumps up to his nonexistent ears. He remembered their words- words that would sink into you skin and wouldn't go away because of how true they were.

Nightmare had calmly stated that he was fear that was deep in their heart; immortal, so he would return for them.

Zero hadn't said anything calmly.

Kirby vaguely remembered his corpse falling away, disintegrating, his pupil still remaining, staring at them, bleeding severely, as Kirby stared at it with a horrified expression. He didn't mean to hurt him that much.

"WHY DO YOU HATE ME?!" he screeched his voice filled with anguish, barely able to float, as the Dark Matter Swordsman yelled for him to stop. "WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH?!"

The pupil lunged at the Dark Matter-like Gooey, but before he could reach him, Kirby had sliced him in half, much to his shock.

And that scream.

The scream echoed all over Gamble Galaxy, the occupants staring around, trying to find the source of the noise.

Zero's pupil flung around aimlessly, fatally hemorrhaging, and screaming with all the sadness, anger, and pain he had ever stored up.

That was the first time Kirby had ever seen blood, or heard anyone that sad.

Gooey had acted as if it had never happened after it was all over, staying in his cheerful attitude and pulling his sister around, who was almost happier.

But Kirby had not said one poyo for a week.

"Kirby, are you alright?" asked Marx, instead of the other way around, after a long silence.

Kirby opened his eyes, nodded, and smiled reassuringly.

At least he still had Marx.

But as he remembered Nightmare's words again, he thought about it closely.

Was he trying to send him a hidden message, one that was coming through him?

Didn't the heart contain happiness as well, which led to dreams?

But as he remembered Nightmare's words again, he wondered if he was trying to send him a hidden message.

Not a message from him, but someone was sending a message THROUGH him.

...Didn't the heart contain happiness, which led to dreams?

Or was that just his imagination?

But he didn't have that much time to think about this, because he saw the ground of the next planet appear out of the window.

With a smile, Marx jumped on his ball, and walked towards the door.

"We have work to do~!" he sang.


	9. Chapter 9

The first person Kirby met on Floria scared him to life.

As Marx proceeded to open the door to the planet, a creature that looked similar to the Sir Kibble that Kirby knew popped onto the ship, roaring in a way that made Kirby, Dedede, Escargon, Fumu, Sword, Blade and Bun fall back, completely unprepared.

Only Marx and Meta Knight didn't seem fazed.

"What the hell, zoi?!" yelled Dedede, getting up from the driver's seat. "Who are you?!"

"Was machst du?!" shouted the Sir Kibble instead. "Sie verursacht Schaden zu unserer Land!"

"Say what?" murmured Bun from the ground, quietly getting up.

This caused the Sir Kibble to take the sharp boomerang from his hat and point it at him, and although they couldn't understand him, his gestures were clear that he wanted him to stay down. Bun surprisingly obeyed, almost cautiously.

But before anyone else could make another move, Marx rolled over on his beach ball, but as the Sir Kibble poised his boomerang to strike, making Meta Knight reach to his sword on instinct and Blade and Sword step forward threateningly, Marx bowed, a bit more dramatically than he had to Fumu and Bun at Kabu's Valley.

This took even the Sir Kibble by shock, but he did not lower the weapon in his hand.

"Wir entschuldigen uns für diese," said Marx, his head still bowed. "Wir wollte nicht, dass dies geschieht."

He gestured with his head to the shocked Popstarians.

"Die Leute hinter mir Sie nicht deine Sprache sprechen, und verstehen nicht, warum Sie sie anzugreifen. Hinter min auch, ist Kirby der Sterne. Senken Sie Ihre Waffe, wenn Sie nicht wünschen um ihn zu kämpfen."

Sir Kibble dropped the boomerang he had in his hand with a soft gasp.

"...Kirby?"

"Hey, hey, hey, das ist besser nicht wahr?"

He turned to the others, who who had the expressions that were a mix of impressed, gratified, and still shocked.

"That's better, huh? I'd better save your behinds often!"

"Aber er ist so winzig!" hissed the Sir Kibble in a soft whisper, as if he were too embarrassed to speak out loud.

"Hey!"

As Marx gave the Sir Kibble an annoyed glance, Kirby gave Marx large, amazed eyes.

His friend was really incredible.

"You know different languages?" breathed Fumu. "What other languages do you know?"

"English, German, Spanish, Danish, French, Latin, Dutch, Portuguese, Slavic, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Assyrian, Irish, Filipino, Hebrew, Croatian, Greek, Finnish, Turkish, Thai, Yiddish, Persian, Norwegian and a bunch of others. There's a lot of things you don't know about me," he added, once he saw the siblings' expressions.

"How supernatural are you?!" yelled Bun, using a word that his sister had taught him a few days ago to describe Dedede.

Marx chuckled his usual, young chuckle.

"Like I said~" he sang. "You shouldn't judge someone before you know completely how they are, mm-hmm~!"

"Poyo!" added Kirby, pointing to himself as if saying, 'Your common sense of me is better than that of the regular mortal!'

Marx chortled again, then rolled to the still surprised Sir Kibble.

"Wir sind nach der Star Rod der letzten Krieger, die auf diesem Planeten. Wo sollen wir ihn finden wohnte?"

"Der Brunnen der Träume," the Sir Kibble said, sadly, as if holding back tears. "Es wurde unberührt gelassen seit der Krieger...Er war so... pure... Aber... die Alpträume waren zu viel... sie machte ihn zu knacken. Er verschwand..."

Marx nodded, and bowed again.

"Danke."

The Sir Kibble nodded, leaving the shuttle, his heart heavy.

"What'd he say?" asked Bun, as Marx remained silent, staring at the ground. Angrily.

"Huh?"

Marx shook his head, still dazed, but making the dark expression disappear.

"Sorry, I was thinking. He said it's at the Fountain of Dreams. And I thanked him. Then he left."

"But he looked so-" started Fumu.

"THAT'S ALL HE SAID, OK?" screamed Marx, choking back sobs of his own. "HE JUST FELT GUILTY, MM-HMM?"

"Hey, calm down, de gesu!" said Escargon, but even he looked frightened at Marx's new nature. "You don't want to be fired on the first day!"

** "YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, MM-HMM?"** he spat, each word coated with frozen venom, directing his anger at Escargon. **"YOU DON'T WANNA GET HURT, K'?"**

Marx glared at him with eyes that could've scared even Gooey. They almost glowed with the dark nature.

But as he looked ready to hurl himself at Escargon, he felt something make his ball roll a bit. Looking down, he saw Kirby look up at him with sad eyes. And for once, a person had actually remembered his sensitivity to surprising nudges from strangers.

"K-Kirby?"

"Korby-poyo," said Kirby bluntly, lacking emotion.

This caused Marx to stare at him, his expression from angry to shocked to expressionless.

Slowly, he turned to Dedede and Escargon, who had hidden behind his king, and knelt on his ball, the best he could with only feet, his face covered with shame.

"I apologize for my actions," he whispered. "Please forgive me."

"You should be given the death sentence!" yelled Dedede, pointing to him, but was cut off by Escargon, who shook his head frantically.

"That wouldn't be wise," he hissed quietly, so only Dedede could hear. "Did you see how angry he looked? That was literally anger itself."

Dedede glared at him, but noticed how Marx was beginning to tense up again.

"Fine, zoi," he murmured, waving his hand away as Marx's face brightened. "Just don't give me another one of your weird looks."

"I can't keep promises~" he said. "You should know that~"

"Oh-ho, trust me, I KNOW."

He stretched, walking to the still-open door with Escargon, who cautiously stared behind him.

"We're going ahead to that Fountain, zoi. Come when you feel like it. But take your time." he paused, then smirked. "Better yet, don't come at all."

As he exited the space shuttle, there was a short silence, followed by Sir Meta Knight walking towards the door, gesturing Sword and Blade to leave with him. They left the shuttle, but Sir Meta Knight lingered around a bit longer.

"You'd all better hurry," he said. "You don't want to be left behind. Who knows what his Majesty will do with the Star Rod if he's left alone with it. He's one of the many people that don't deserve to even look at it."

His gaze crossed over to Marx, as his eyes turned green, then turned into a foggy gray, a color none of them had seen before.

But before anyone could say another word, he exited the shuttle as silently as he had entered it.


	10. Chapter 10

"Do you want to hear a song, Kirby?"

Marx had secured his beach ball in his tent, the tent he shared with Kirby, and had turned to Kirby after a moment of silence in the remembrance of who's fountain this was.

Night had come fast; so fast, that it had almost passed by like the fake special effects Dedede usually put on his television show. Except this was real. Almost too real to believe.

They had went back to the shuttle, without Dedede this time, and had brought back all their belongings, minus Marx, who had no belongings other than his beach ball, hat, and bow.

Kirby nodded, punching his pillow with all his might to make it a bit more comfortable, because it had been crumpled up in the shuttle for a while, and had a few of Tokkori's feathers still on it.

It didn't affect the pillow much, but still, it made him feel better in a way.

Marx smiled, then coughed, almost uncomfortably.

"U-usually I don't perform for just anyone, even for free. But... you know, we're friends..."

Kirby giggled, and was about to raise his hand for a high five, something people like Bun, Joe, and Sir Falspar gave him, but remembered Marx's no-hand/touch rule and turned around to punch his pillow again with the same hand.

"Yeapoyo!" he said awkwardly.

Marx jumped on his ball with no effort at all, balancing on one foot for a moment as if preparing himself for something. When he realized it wasn't coming and that Kirby was staring at him with a soft smile, he returned the smile and cleared his throat.

"Don't laugh, OK?" he almost whispered.

"Okay-poyo!"

He inhaled and began, speaking as a narrator:

"Once, there was a dream. Who dreamt it is still unknown. Possibly a great evil, possibly only a child, but nobody knows. The dream realized, right before it ended, "I will be forgotten! What should I do to bring happiness to the one who created me?" He thought and thought, and finally came up with an idea. A gruesome one, but still an idea. With a small, almost mischievous smile, he said, "I will let living beings stray into me, and they will create a story... a spectacular Wonderland!""

He turned on his ball, noticing Kirby's wide eyes, and flipped, landing on one foot and closing his eyes.

He began to sing:

"The first Alice was a daughter of red. And, blade in hand and chin held high, entered Wonderland~!"

He looked solemn for the next verse, almost as if he could feel the emotions in the song.

"Misunderstood and mocked by the men and woman of the land, she cut down things in her path to create a road of red~"

He put on a scared expression that made him look even more innocent.

"This Alice was walking down an unknown path in the woods, and was imprisoned deep in here, locked in as a sinner~"

He bowed his head as he always did.

"If not for the memories of sadness, she would've been completely forgotten~"

He twirled with one foot on his ball, making Kirby look on with awe.

"The second Alice was a noble man, building things for all the people in Wonderland~!"

He turned his back to Kirby, slumping.

"Everybody loved his works, which were the best in the universe, but rejected him, so, in return, he created a world full of madness~"

He made a mime of himself choking, rolling his eyes back with amusement.

"But this all ended soon when, with greed, he was sliced in half by a true hero. With one last dying breath, he looked up, a twisted but forgiving smile on his face."

Marx flipped off his ball, and balanced it on his head, now completely in the act and not noticing Kirby staring with wide eyes at him and clapping, laughing as well with excitement.

He was actually happy. He was making somebody laugh. And not at him.

"The third Alice was a beautiful girl; she was the queen of Wonderland~!"

Kirby gasped with surprise as Marx twisted high into the air in an acrobatic pose almost too unreal to believe, and soon, landed perfectly on his two feet. ON the beach ball.

"She was well-known throughout the land, using her skills to amaze her surrounding people~"

He slumped again, but this time in a more convincing way.

"Sadly, she was controlled by the corruptions of evil. But soon she escaped her dark thinking, and instead focused on another goal: "I will ignore the evil thoughts in my head, and continue to search for my meaning, and others like me!" She is the only Alice to have a happy end~"

He flipped again, but this time, kicked the ball overhead with him, and landed on one foot, balancing his ball on the other.

Kirby stared, mouth wide open, then began cheering loudly, clapping.

"Marpoyo! Marpoyo!" he laughed, jumping up and down now. "Yea! Yea!"

Marx blinked, as if realizing just now that Kirby was in front of him, then looked down.

"No, I couldn't have been that good. I always mess up, and then you have to laugh at me."

Kirby shook his head, and balanced on his pillow, as if he were Marx balancing on the beach ball. This attempt failed, and he fell down, face-planting in front of Marx, but continued laughing, getting up.

"Yea, yea, Marpoyo!" he squealed.

"Y-... you liked it?"

"Fumu-poyo! Bun-poyo!" he called loudly.

Fumu came running in, a worried expression on her face and her hair a mess. Bun came trailing behind, a blanket still on his head.

"Kirby!" Fumu yelled. "We were worried you might've been hurt!"

"'We?'" repeated Bun. "Seriously? Kirby's defeated a LIVING NIGHTMARE, and you're worried some bug is bothering him? You really are weird sometimes, sis."

Fumu crossed her arms, almost sarcastically.

"And you're an idiot when you wake up. Why'd you wake up in the first place?"

Bun lifted an eyebrow, and gestured dramatically to Kirby and Marx, who looked as if they were holding back a chuckle.

Fumu sighed and left, ignoring the fact that Marx had burst into crazy laughter, so much that tears were pouring out of his eyes.

"Oh- oh my- I can't breathe!" he gasped.

"Wow, you laugh a lot," said Bun, grinning. but suddenly frowned. "But isn't sis acting weird? Sure, she's bossy, but I don't think she's ever called anyone an idiot, if you count out Dedede. And Escargon."

"Sad-poyo?" asked Kirby, tilting his head.

"Puberty?" said Marx flatly.

"What's that?"

"Ask your sister, and then she'll call you an idiot again. You'll find out, but maybe it's not that. How old is she?"

"She's fifteen," said Bun. "In OUR years, not human years. Human years are too fast."

"I know, right? So, she's basically my age? Was she ever rebellious?"

"Nah, never said the words 'You're not the boss of me' to our parents, EVER. Maybe she's just sad."

"Sad about what?"

Bun suddenly looked stone-frozen, as if he had said something wrong.

"Nothing."

"But-"

"Nope. I'm not talking to you anymore."

"But-"

Bun speed-walked out of the tent, muttering 'Nope' over and over again, until he was out of earshot.

Until then, Marx rolled his ball over to his bed, and let it sleep next to him.

"Why'd you call those two?" he asked, as Kirby landed on his pillow, on his stomach in front of Marx.

"Nice-poyo!" he said, smiling.

"Pfft, nobody's liked my shows. I just make people laugh when I TRY to do something, but do it horribly... You're saying I did good?"

Kirby nodded, then pointed to his head, then his heart, almost as if signalling a life lesson.

This action would cause all of the future to alter, but nobody knew this at the time.

Not Marx. Not Fumu. Not even Kirby himself.

He just felt as if he needed Marx to know this. And he did.

With one last smile, Kirby tucked himself into the bed with a blue blanket designed with yellow stars, and quickly fell asleep.

But Marx stayed up, staring at the pink puff.

"Are you saying," he whispered, without realizing he was actually saying this out loud. "That my mind is saying one thing, which is all lies, if not smart, but my heart shows what is true?"

He thought about this, and couldn't believe he was actually saying it.

Did Kirby actually feel remorse when destroying Nightmare and Zero?

Did Kirby actually think of him as a friend?

Did Kirby actually... CARE?


	11. Chapter 11

Sir Meta Knight shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It was hardly midnight, but he would usually sleep by this time; not because of drowsiness, but because he had to wake early.

Sword and Blade, on the other hand, liked this new time to fall asleep, and were munching down some natto, even though it wasn't breakfast.

"It's alright, calm down, Sir," said Blade, shoving Sword's hand away from the plate. "It would be unreasonable to think the boy is possessed."

Meta Knight turned to glare at him.

"So you're calling me unreasonable?" he asked gauntly.

"N-no, I just-"

"Don't think of it too much, many have called me unreasonable."

He touched his mask thoughtfully, right where Kirby had touched it as Sword nudged Blade childishly, who looked down with embarrassment.

"The child feels empathy more than the three of us combined. He can almost FEEL his enemy's pain. He doesn't know this, and this is why he is confused on why he is so depressed."

"Kirby is depressed?" asked Sword. "I haven't noticed."

"Well, in training he HAS been acting weird, hasn't he?" said Blade slowly. "When we meet up with you afterwards, he's staring at the floor as if he's ready to cry or something. Then it's gone."

"Yes, the battle with Zero shook him greatly," agreed Meta Knight, nodding. "He knows something that we don't about him. Something that scared him too much, that he didn't want to talk about. But what?"

"Maybe some kind of bad truth?" asked Sword, snatching his bowl away from Blade, who was going to chuck the natto down his throat.

"If so, why did he cheer up so suddenly?"

Meta Knight's eyes turned green for a moment as there was a moment of silence, followed by Blade tackling Sword to get the bowl back. But Meta Knight was uninterrupted by this.

What interrupted him was the noise from outside.

A soft crunch, like that of a leaf's, but it caught his attention immediately.

Sword and Blade didn't seem to notice this, but Meta Knight's hand twitched at the sound, and he got up suddenly.

"Where are you going, Sir?" asked Sword, watching his lord head for the exit.

"No where," he said as bluntly as he could, hiding his worry. "Just to go for a walk."

He wrapped his cape around him and exited the tent, speed-walking away when he had completely closed the flap of tent.

He found the source of the noise not far from Kirby and Marx's tent. It was indeed a broken leaf, one obviously caused by a foot, when Meta Knight observed it closely. He unsheathed his blade on instinct once again. He couldn't call Blade or Sword. Who would protect the others if they lost?

He would have to fight it by himself. Whatever 'it' was.

He looked around to see if the children were watching him, then quickly activated his wings and zoomed into the tree. He checked the tents again to see if anyone had seen him. Nobody had.

The knight DID see, however, that Kirby's tent entrance was open a bit. Stealthily, he maneuvered his way to the tent, and landed softly in front of the opened door. He opened it, ready to slice open a demon beast, but instead saw his student breathing heavily from under a blanket, rolling around his pillow as if he were having a dream.

A slightly bad dream, but a dream.

'He's probably dreaming about Gooey stealing his food. Again,' he thought humorously, his eyes turning pink.

His eyes crossed over to Marx's bed. His ball lay there, moving around as if he had just been playing with it, but he was nowhere.

'Where is he?' he thought. He looked around the tent once more, this time walking around the jester's bed to check if he was still there.

There was still no sign of him.

With a sigh, Meta Knight left the tent. It was a relief he had left. Marx was a big danger to Kirby, and would hurt him if left alone with him.

But as he thought this, he heard a rush of feet, and a shadow raced past him. He lifted his sword to eye-level, and stepped forward to gain a stance.

Another moment later, a claw glinted in the moon light, and his blade met the end of a large wing; a golden, bat-like one, with a single blood red heart at the tip. It had two claws, and small mirrors floated slightly beneath it.

"Hey, hey, hey," said the owner, his voice emitting from all of Meta Knight's surroundings. "Look who it is."

...

"Out of all people, you had to be out here," said Marx, but still didn't drop his wing, as if he wanted to kill him right then and there. Marx's appearance had changed greatly.

He had two of the bat-like wings, which Meta Knight found ironic, regarding the situation. He was at least three times bigger than his usual self, and his eyes were visible behind his jester hat, but were shrouded, and they were staring at him; in fact, almost THROUGH him. A wide, almost insane smile was playing on his lips, one that twitched every once and a while.

He clicked his tongue three times, giggling.

"I knew someone would like to have fun and finally play with me~"

"Why would I play with you?" Meta Knight asked darkly, putting both his hands on the hilt of his sword. "Aren't you planning to kill us all?"

"There are no bad parts of a coin, correct?" said Marx, smiling even wider. "If there is, you can't tell which side is hate and which side is love. That way, both hate and love rejoice in unison, mm-hmm!"

"You really think it works that way?!"

"Mm-hmm!" Marx jumped back, and turned back into his wingless form, shrinking as well, but his eyes still staying chaotic. Meta Knight took his time sheathing his sword, never letting his guard and glare down as Marx continued talking, this time with a frown.

"I was looking for my ball. It's nowhere. And I can't deal with the unseen world without it."

Meta Knight lifted an eyebrow.

"Unseen... world?"

Marx trembled, and looked as if he needed something more than one of Kirby's random hugs.

"Y-yes. The unseen world is... s-so... mean... I-it hurt me in ways I cannot explain..."

"You didn't answer my question, child. What is the unseen world?"

Marx didn't seem to hear him. Instead, he grew his wings again, this time without growing, but as Meta Knight reached for his hilt again, Marx used his claws to hold his head.

"Mama gave me that ball... Sh-she left me and..."

His expression was fear like Meta Knight hadn't ever seen. And he'd SEEN fear.

But this was a whole new level of fear. Tears were beginning to form in Marx's eyes. Both eyes had shrunken pupils, but his mouth curved back into another twitching smile. Except this one looked forced.

"You can never learn to love people," he managed. "'Cause they always laugh at you. Mockery is a piece of shit hell."

"Hmm," whispered Meta Knight. "So I suspected correctly."

"So you're gonna snitch on me?"

"Why would I do something as idiotic and pathetic as that?"

Marx snickered, then went back to his wingless form once again, permanently. At least, that's what Meta Knight hoped.

"I guess you'll have to learn more about me later, huh, Sir Meta Knight~?"

"If I've learned anything from low, cowardly demon beasts like you," said Meta Knight, bringing his sword up to Marx's forehead. "It's that you never keep promises. And that's just another on of the million reasons to kill them."

Marx seemed unfazed, looking up at Meta Knight with stone-eyes. Finally, after a minute passed, Meta Knight pointed the tip of his sword to the floor and turned around, putting his sword back in again and pulling his cape around him.

"You try to live with those memories, alright?" he murmured, a sentence Marx barely heard. "Those memories shouldn't be in a regular child's mind."

"Pfft, I don't need your help!" he scoffed, turning back to Kirby's tent.

"You're right, you don't need my help."

Meta Knight turned to look at him once more, his eyes a red hue.

"You need Kirby's help. He'll help you see, if you aren't seeing correctly already."

And with that, he entered his tent.


	12. Chapter 12

"Get up, idiot."

Marx winced as he got up, hiding behind the book he was reading. In front of him stood the silhouette of a woman; a short one, barely one head taller than him, but her posture remained straight nonetheless. Her eyes pierced the darkness as she held something colored with something Marx liked to call 'ketchup.'

"I-I m-memorized it, your Majesty," he stammered.

"Quit your stuttering, idiot. It makes you look even more pathetic."

That's what she called him. Idiot. Not the best name ever, but better than what she was planning to call him. Or what others called him.

The silhouette's owner showed herself as she fully opened the door, showering him in light. He shut his eyes, then opened them a crack.

"Well, you memorized it?" she asked briskly. "I won't have to send you to-"

"NO!" Marx shrieked, throwing the book aside and baring his fangs. "NEVER EVER SEND ME THERE!"

The queen squinted at him coldly, until he hid his fangs, eyes wide.

"I-I-I didn't m-mean that, Your Majest-"

"Repeat the page," she interrupted, hiding the 'ketchup' covered weapon and taking out a riding crop. "Repeat it or I SWEAR I will kill you, SLOWLY and PAINFULLY."

She hissed out 'slowly' and 'painfully' with complete hatred, walking over to the jester and grabbing his cheek, forcefully yanking him out of the room. Thankfully, he obeyed, trying to ignore the fact that she was touching him.

He also tried to ignore the jail cells containing loud shrieking and cries of help as he walked down the hallway.

'Poor souls...' thought Marx, running to keep up with the queen, until finally, they reached the throne room.

The throne room looked simple, if you took out the weapons and other lethal items. Including skeletons that were once beautiful living creatures. From behind him, a male human which the Queen usually called 'Alfonso' came up from behind him, his eyes as empty as ever, and took out a word bigger than the queen herself, poising it over Marx.

Marx gulped down all his sorrows.

He now wished that he had stayed in that room.

But the Queen seemed unfazed, regarding the swords complexity with her red eyes, almost amused, the flipped to a random page in the book.

"Rehearse from page 1694."

Marx nodded hesitantly, and closed his eyes. and hardly a half-second later, he opened them, pupiless.

"1694. Chapter start."

His eyes scrolled around, looking at nothing, but looked as if he were reading a book.

"Nova is an intergalactic space machine capable of granting one wish to those with selfish desires. It's true motives are not clear, nor are they evil or good. It seems that Nova has no willpower of his own, granting the wisher his wish for a superfluous meaning. Many people ask a wish because they are melancholy. Some ask because they are ignorant. But those people seem to be haunted by their wishes, with the result of their wish causing dramatic and capricious. Only those who have a magnificent talent to them get a greater result; they see the truth, embroidered in luminosity-"

"Alright, idiot, that's enough," she snapped, shutting the book almost too forcefully.

This snapped Marx back into the present, his pupils growing.

"But, your Majesty, I-"

"Argue with me, and I will order Alfonso to stab you."

Marx flinched and bowed, but it seemed acted out, as if in real life, he wanted to tear the queen apart.

"I'm sorry."

The Queen scoffed softly beneath her breath, and gestured the buff human to leave. He obeyed, closing the door behind him.

"I'm not finished with you yet."

She flicked her finger, and Marx was sent towards her. She took out a small knife, but as Marx thought she would murder him, she played with it, throwing it around, almost childishly.

"How long did you read today, idiot?"

"T-ten hours. Fifteen, if counting the time in... THERE."

The Queen looked almost pleased for a moment.

"Mm. That's not as horribly as last time. Thank all evil."

"What did you need to tell me?" asked Marx, stifling his annoyance.

"Shut up."

The Queen grabbed Marx's hat again, sending bullets up his spine. He managed to not wrangle away.

"Have you ever heard of Kirby?"

Marx's eyes widened, shocked the Queen knew that Marx secretly studied about the warrior behind her back. He was a bit of a fan, knowing what he had done to save Popstar, and the universe.

But that wasn't a good thing, and Marx didn't know why.

"Well, of course. Y-you-you talk bad about him all the time, so I had to listen, mm-hmm?"

The Queen glared at him, dropping him from his hat once more."

"If you read about that damn puffball one more time," she hissed, kicking the jester away and creating a new bruise on his side. "I will send you to the unseen world and never make you return."

Marx's lower lip trembled, and another shiver went down his spine as the Queen turned her back to him.

"Now leave me alone and quit giving me that pathetic look. And think up that plan would you? Maybe I won't cut your stomach open after that. Or even pop your ball. NOW LEAVE!"

Marx yelped as the Queen threw the knife in her hand at his head, missing by barely a centimeter. It notched into the wall above him, but, shockingly, Marx simply vanished in a blur.

The Queen eyed the place he had been earlier and turned to her shadow. A small smile played on her lips, but as she stared even more intensely, she could see a red eye staring back at her.

In her mouth.

Her mouth turned into a devious smirk, as she danced to her throne, a dark aura surrounding her as she recited in a choir-like tone: **"You denied my happiness, and since I cannot feel joy, ****_NO ONE EVER WILL."_**

**Author's Note: Sorry to end the chapter on such a low note ^^' Just to be clear, that's not you-know-who. It's just a Dark Matter.**


	13. Chapter 13

Meta Knight tightened his cape around him, ignoring the heat, as he watched the sun go up. He felt strangely cold whenever he stared at Kirby's tent, as if Marx didn't just change the atmosphere, but changed the weather as well.

After the encounter last night, Meta Knight had instantly ordered Blade and Sword to sleep, much to their dismay. They obeyed, but didn't seem to like it, and didn't fall asleep for quite a while, until finally, they did, leaving him to be the only one awake, surprisingly.

He didn't sleep for many reasons.

One reason was because of Marx's plan.

It was as clear as day. The betrayal was familiar. He couldn't bear it if Kirby would be even more depressed. The child could hardly speak.

The second reason was because of the stare he had received from the jester.

It wasn't a regular stare you would get. It was a stare that you would see, and it would get plastered in your brain, so whenever you would wake up in the morning, you would see it.

His smile was so EMPTY. It felt as if he were a sociopath, but what about the regret? Why did it seem like he was holding back? In one quick move, he could've killed him last night, and screamed, shrinking back to his normal form, so it would be obvious it wasn't him.

But he didn't. Instead, he muttered something about an 'unseen world' and went back to sleep.

Meta Knight shook his head (?) and sighed.

He didn't try to understand the mind complexity of demon beasts and creatures like them. They, alone, disgusted him.

"Teacher-poyo?"

Meta Knight crossed his eyes over to Kirby, who had just exited the tent, rubbing his eyes with one hand stump and holding his blanket in the other.

"Good morning, Kirby," he replied. "I see you're up early. Don't you sleep until at least eight?"

Kirby shivered, dropping the hand that was rubbing his eyes and using it to hug his blanket.

"Nightmare-poyo."

Meta Knight stiffened.

"That's impossible! We're near the Fountain of Dreams. You shouldn't have nightmares."

Kirby walked over to the older puffball, leaning on him. In a quick move, Meta Knight scooted away, uncomfortable, causing Kirby to harrumph and cross his arms stumps beneath his blanket.

"I'm not your father," he said. "But you can tell me what has been bothering you this year."

Kirby looked at him with wide eyes.

"Hmm-poyo?"

"Admit it, child," he murmured, his eyes turning into a red hue and averting his eyes back to the sunrise. "Zero shook you greatly, and Nightmare didn't help. Not in a way that would be noticeable, but enough to shake you emotionally for you to feel true sorrow in the worst possible time. You know the battle isn't over and it scares you. THAT I know. But why, now? You've seen many demon beasts die. But the leader of the Dark Matter, you feel remorse for destroying? What did you see that gave you fear? And what causes you to keep fighting anyways, no matter what the cost?"

He turned back to Kirby, who gave him an unreadable expression.

"Well?" he added after a long silence.

Slowly, Kirby lifted his star-covered blanket towards the knight, until the blanket was right in front of his sight.

The knight looked down at the blanket, and then back to Kirby.

"A... a blanket keeps you fighting?" he asked, trying hard to hide his confusion and, guiltily, his amusement. "Against gods, extraterrestrial beings, and pure evil?"

Kirby's look changed from embarrassed to unimpressed in a mere second. He stood on the tips of his toes and pushed the blanket out closer to the knight, shaking his head.

"Kn-Kni!" he said, giggling.

Meta Knight stared closely at the blanket, but couldn't see what his student was trying to point out to him.

"I'm sorry, Kirby, I can't understand what you're trying to tell me."

Kirby blinked twice and held the blanket closely, pointing at one of the stars on his blanket with his left arm stump.

"Poyo!" he said.

"Star...?"

Kirby frowned and held up the same arm, as if holding something, putting on the most threatening face he could muster, which wasn't very threatening.

"Star Rod!" he yelled, not adding a 'poyo' to the end of this as he did to his other attacks.

"The Star Rod keeps you fighting?" said Meta Knight, as Kirby dropped his arm with a triumphant look. "But why? Does it remind you of something?"

Kirby nodded, pointing to the Fountain of Dreams, which now partially blocked the sunrise. The part that wasn't blocked emitted from the sides of the Fountain, making it as if it were almost glowing.

"The time you defeated Nightmare with the Star Rod to restore dreams and save the universe?" Meta Knight shook his head, still confused but a bit enlightened.

"I don't understand one thing. What keeps you fighting?"

Kirby's smile widened, and for one moment, Meta Knight could swear he was three times his size, the blanket acting as a cape, but it was gone.

But the advice lingered for a few days longer.

Kirby leaned forward, laughing.

"Happy end," he said. "Where even villains party with the heroes. I always imagine what it'd be like to have that, and then I don't give up. That's it."

...

Kirby hadn't said one word after this statement for a long while.

They sat for a while, alright. It had been five when Kirby had woken up. It was now nine.

Nobody, thankfully, had woken up during that time period, which had given Meta Knight time to think.

He had already begun to talk, because of Fumu, which was strange for their species in an age like that, because of the war and lack of education, but speaking without one poyo in a sentence was nearly impossible for a puffball hardly two hundred years old to do.

Kirby was trying to sleep next to him, but every time he seemed to get comfortable, which meant using Meta Knight as a pillow, he would scoot away uncomfortably, causing Kirby to fall flat on his face, which made Kirby follow him, try again, and be followed by the same result.

Yet he wouldn't give up until Meta Knight became bored of this routine and sat down, which led to Kirby sitting down, then falling asleep once again with an amused smile.

"What's your secret, huh?" Meta Knight finally asked. "I can never know everything about you. Were you once a demon beast? If you were, then all of the GSA would have been wiped out in easily a week. Who were your parents? And why do you care about your enemies so much?"

Kirby murmured sleepily in return.

The knight turned to look if anybody had seen the two for the sixth time. He scooted away again, causing Kirby to yelp and shake his head, a disgusted look on his face.

"Sleep-poyo," he said, hugging his blanket.

"I'm your teacher," he replied. "Not your pillow."

Kirby puffed his cheeks in response and stomped away, searching for anything edible. The king had taken all of the food and had stuffed it inside his tent to 'protect' it from Kirby. Of course, this came with sacrifice, and Escargon had to sleep in Fumu and Bun's tent.

His attempts were futile, though. He tried to eat a rock, but when he saw Meta Knight's look of disapproval, he dropped it, kicking it away ruefully.

Then Meta Knight decided to change the subject before the whole 'King Dedede stealing food from the people' thing started up again.

"Well..." he started. "What do you think of Marx?"

'And why the hell would I ask him that question?!' he thought, inwardly face palming.

Kirby touched his chin with an arm stump.

"Hmmm..."

He gasped and put his arm stump up, about to make an incomprehensible statement involving a bunch of poyos and words that never existed, but as he inhaled, a loud crash came from Fumu and Bun's tent, followed by Bun laughing boisterously.

"Hey, sis, maybe Escargon should be your study partner!" he snorted.

"Shut up!" came the retort, but it came more as a snarl than anything else, which Fumu hardly did.

"What is the matter with Fumu?" he asked quietly, happy to leave the Marx topic.

Kirby shrugged, but he seemed worried as well.

Another crash and Bun came flying out of the tent, howling with laughter. He turned to the two and pointed at the tent.

"You should see what Fumu's doing to Escargon! I have the most awesome sister EVER!"

"Fumu being violent?" Meta Knight stiffened and entered the tent, his eyes turning into a deep shade of green. "That's impossible. You should know this, Bun."

"You were the one who taught her those jujitsu moves a year ago!" Bun shouted back but quieted down immediately.

A few seconds later, the yelling stopped, replaced by unintelligible arguing, and Fumu storming out of the tent, her face red with anger and hair messed up. She glared at them, but then, her expression was replaced by a softer, confused one.

"What just happened?"

...

... 

The Fountain's power was easy to collect, but nobody understood what Kirby had done.

It had just... APPEARED before them in the form of a small star, after Kirby had told it something. The only words they heard were 'Kirby,' 'Star Rod,' and 'Evil,' and this was followed by a series of poyos, and soon, the star had appeared, flinging itself into King Dedede's food supply.

After some discussion with the king and big words that made no sense to the king, Marx had managed to tear the star out of his hands using his fangs and gently give it to Kirby.

"Sorry for the wait," he murmured as he spit out the star and kicked it to Kirby. "That king is as stubborn as Grill giving up an onion to someone. Or giving anyone food at all."

He turned his cheek at the king and lifted an eyebrow at him.

"And that's saying something, bird."

"Aqualiss isn't as far as you said it would be," said Fumu, reading a map, deep with interest. "And it's much more different than I thought it would look."

"What did you think it would look like?"

Fumu squinted at the map.

"More water. More sea creatures. But what would I know? It-" she stopped herself- "would probably have been that way YEARS ago."

"It actually was." Marx blinked. "Millions of years ago. How'd you know?"

"I do my homework."

"Good for you."

"So, sis, you're saying it's not that far away?" Bun asked.

Fumu nodded and turned the map to face him. She pointed at a blue planet.

"This is Aqualiss." She moved her finger to point at another dot, one smaller than it. "This is where we are. Floria, Aqualiss, and Skyhigh are the closest to each other. Before they weren't like that. They..."

She paused again, creating an awkward silence that lasted between the three for at least a minute.

Finally, Fumu shook her head.

"Never mind. I don't know what I'm saying."

"Sometimes you don't make sense, sis."

Fumu got up abruptly, wringing her hands.

"Meh, I guess it's my problem," she said care-freely. "Or it has been LATELY."

She shot him a threatening glance and walked off, leaving Marx chuckling quietly.

"It's puberty," he giggled. "It _has_ to be puberty."


	14. Chapter 14

Meta Knight tightened his cape around him, ignoring the heat, as he watched the sun go up. He felt strangely cold whenever he stared at Kirby's tent, as if Marx didn't just change the atmosphere, but changed the weather as well.

After the encounter last night, Meta Knight had instantly ordered Blade and Sword to sleep, much to their dismay. They obeyed, but didn't seem to like it, and didn't fall asleep for quite a while, until finally, they did, leaving him to be the only one awake, surprisingly.

He didn't sleep for many reasons.

One reason was because of Marx's plan.

It was as clear as day. The betrayal was familiar. He couldn't bear it if Kirby would be even more depressed. The child could hardly speak.

The second reason was because of the stare he had received from the jester.

It wasn't a regular stare you would get. It was a stare that you would see, and it would get plastered in your brain, so whenever you would wake up in the morning, you would see it.

His smile was so EMPTY. It felt as if he were a sociopath, but what about the regret? Why did it seem like he was holding back? In one quick move, he could've killed him last night, and screamed, shrinking back to his normal form, so it would be obvious it wasn't him.

But he didn't. Instead, he muttered something about an 'unseen world' and went back to sleep.

Meta Knight shook his head (?) and sighed.

He didn't try to understand the mind complexity of demon beasts and creatures like them. They, alone, disgusted him.

"Teacher-poyo?"

Meta Knight crossed his eyes over to Kirby, who had just exited the tent, rubbing his eyes with one hand stump and holding his blanket in the other.

"Good morning, Kirby," he replied. "I see you're up early. Don't you sleep until at least eight?"

Kirby shivered, dropping the hand that was rubbing his eyes and using it to hug his blanket.

"Nightmare-poyo."

Meta Knight stiffened.

"That's impossible! We're near the Fountain of Dreams. You shouldn't have nightmares."

Kirby walked over to the older puffball, leaning on him. In a quick move, Meta Knight scooted away, uncomfortable, causing Kirby to harrumph and cross his arms stumps beneath his blanket.

"I'm not your father," he said. "But you can tell me what has been bothering you this year."

Kirby looked at him with wide eyes.

"Hmm-poyo?"

"Admit it, child," he murmured, his eyes turning into a red hue and averting his eyes back to the sunrise. "Zero shook you greatly, and Nightmare didn't help. Not in a way that would be noticeable, but enough to shake you emotionally for you to feel true sorrow in the worst possible time. You know the battle isn't over and it scares you. THAT I know. But why, now? You've seen many demon beasts die. But the leader of the Dark Matter, you feel remorse for destroying? What did you see that gave you fear? And what causes you to keep fighting anyways, no matter what the cost?"

He turned back to Kirby, who gave him an unreadable expression.

"Well?" he added after a long silence.

Slowly, Kirby lifted his star-covered blanket towards the knight, until the blanket was right in front of his sight.

The knight looked down at the blanket, and then back to Kirby.

"A... a blanket keeps you fighting?" he asked, trying hard to hide his confusion and, guiltily, his amusement. "Against gods, extraterrestrial beings, and pure evil?"

Kirby's look changed from embarrassed to unimpressed in a mere second. He stood on the tips of his toes and pushed the blanket out closer to the knight, shaking his head.

"Kn-Kni!" he said, giggling.

Meta Knight stared closely at the blanket, but couldn't see what his student was trying to point out to him.

"I'm sorry, Kirby, I can't understand what you're trying to tell me."

Kirby blinked twice and held the blanket closely, pointing at one of the stars on his blanket with his left arm stump.

"Poyo!" he said.

"Star...?"

Kirby frowned and held up the same arm, as if holding something, putting on the most threatening face he could muster, which wasn't very threatening.

"Star Rod!" he yelled, not adding a 'poyo' to the end of this as he did to his other attacks.

"The Star Rod keeps you fighting?" said Meta Knight, as Kirby dropped his arm with a triumphant look. "But why? Does it remind you of something?"

Kirby nodded, pointing to the Fountain of Dreams, which now partially blocked the sunrise. The part that wasn't blocked emitted from the sides of the Fountain, making it as if it were almost glowing.

"The time you defeated Nightmare with the Star Rod to restore dreams and save the universe?" Meta Knight shook his head, still confused but a bit enlightened.

"I don't understand one thing. What keeps you fighting?"

Kirby's smile widened, and for one moment, Meta Knight could swear he was three times his size, the blanket acting as a cape, but it was gone.

But the advice lingered for a few days longer.

Kirby leaned forward, laughing.

"Happy end," he said. "Where even villains party with the heroes. I always imagine what it'd be like to have that, and then I don't give up. That's it."

...

Kirby hadn't said one word after this statement for a long while.

They sat for a while, alright. It had been five when Kirby had woken up. It was now nine.

Nobody, thankfully, had woken up during that time period, which had given Meta Knight time to think.

He had already begun to talk, because of Fumu, which was strange for their species in an age like that, because of the war and lack of education, but speaking without one poyo in a sentence was nearly impossible for a puffball hardly two hundred years old to do.

Kirby was trying to sleep next to him, but every time he seemed to get comfortable, which meant using Meta Knight as a pillow, he would scoot away uncomfortably, causing Kirby to fall flat on his face, which made Kirby follow him, try again, and be followed by the same result.

Yet he wouldn't give up until Meta Knight became bored of this routine and sat down, which led to Kirby sitting down, then falling asleep once again with an amused smile.

"What's your secret, huh?" Meta Knight finally asked. "I can never know everything about you. Were you once a demon beast? If you were, then all of the GSA would have been wiped out in easily a week. Who were your parents? And why do you care about your enemies so much?"

Kirby murmured sleepily in return.

The knight turned to look if anybody had seen the two for the sixth time. He scooted away again, causing Kirby to yelp and shake his head, a disgusted look on his face.

"Sleep-poyo," he said, hugging his blanket.

"I'm your teacher," he replied. "Not your pillow."

Kirby puffed his cheeks in response and stomped away, searching for anything edible. The king had taken all of the food and had stuffed it inside his tent to 'protect' it from Kirby. Of course, this came with sacrifice, and Escargon had to sleep in Fumu and Bun's tent.

His attempts were futile, though. He tried to eat a rock, but when he saw Meta Knight's look of disapproval, he dropped it, kicking it away ruefully.

Then Meta Knight decided to change the subject before the whole 'King Dedede stealing food from the people' thing started up again.

"Well..." he started. "What do you think of Marx?"

'And why the hell would I ask him that question?!' he thought, inwardly face palming.

Kirby touched his chin with an arm stump.

"Hmmm..."

He gasped and put his arm stump up, about to make an incomprehensible statement involving a bunch of poyos and words that never existed, but as he inhaled, a loud crash came from Fumu and Bun's tent, followed by Bun laughing boisterously.

"Hey, sis, maybe Escargon should be your study partner!" he snorted.

"Shut up!" came the retort, but it came more as a snarl than anything else, which Fumu hardly did.

"What is the matter with Fumu?" he asked quietly, happy to leave the Marx topic.

Kirby shrugged, but he seemed worried as well.

Another crash and Bun came flying out of the tent, howling with laughter. He turned to the two and pointed at the tent.

"You should see what Fumu's doing to Escargon! I have the most awesome sister EVER!"

"Fumu being violent?" Meta Knight stiffened and entered the tent, his eyes turning into a deep shade of green. "That's impossible. You should know this, Bun."

"You were the one who taught her those jujitsu moves a year ago!" Bun shouted back but quieted down immediately.

A few seconds later, the yelling stopped, replaced by unintelligible arguing, and Fumu storming out of the tent, her face red with anger and hair messed up. She glared at them, but then, her expression was replaced by a softer, confused one.

"What just happened?"

...

... 

The Fountain's power was easy to collect, but nobody understood what Kirby had done.

It had just... APPEARED before them in the form of a small star, after Kirby had told it something. The only words they heard were 'Kirby,' 'Star Rod,' and 'Evil,' and this was followed by a series of poyos, and soon, the star had appeared, flinging itself into King Dedede's food supply.

After some discussion with the king and big words that made no sense to the king, Marx had managed to tear the star out of his hands using his fangs and gently give it to Kirby.

"Sorry for the wait," he murmured as he spit out the star and kicked it to Kirby. "That king is as stubborn as Grill giving up an onion to someone. Or giving anyone food at all."

He turned his cheek at the king and lifted an eyebrow at him.

"And that's saying something, bird."

"Aqualiss isn't as far as you said it would be," said Fumu, reading a map, deep with interest. "And it's much more different than I thought it would look."

"What did you think it would look like?"

Fumu squinted at the map.

"More water. More sea creatures. But what would I know? It-" she stopped herself- "would probably have been that way YEARS ago."

"It actually was." Marx blinked. "Millions of years ago. How'd you know?"

"I do my homework."

"Good for you."

"So, sis, you're saying it's not that far away?" Bun asked.

Fumu nodded and turned the map to face him. She pointed at a blue planet.

"This is Aqualiss." She moved her finger to point at another dot, one smaller than it. "This is where we are. Floria, Aqualiss, and Skyhigh are the closest to each other. Before they weren't like that. They..."

She paused again, creating an awkward silence that lasted between the three for at least a minute.

Finally, Fumu shook her head.

"Never mind. I don't know what I'm saying."

"Sometimes you don't make sense, sis."

Fumu got up abruptly, wringing her hands.

"Meh, I guess it's my problem," she said care-freely. "Or it has been LATELY."

She shot him a threatening glance and walked off, leaving Marx chuckling quietly.

"It's puberty," he giggled. "It _has_ to be puberty."


	15. Chapter 15

"I LIKE GOULASH AND CHEESE!"

Aqualiss had brought a sea theme in all of them as they had arrived instantly. On the way over, Fumu had explained that a person's true nature was revealed partly in this planet. Everybody seemed uncomfortable by this statement, giving Marx, Bun, and Dedede side glances. But that seemed like a millennium ago.

Now, Marx was screaming the most random phrases and words he could think of, testing the water's echoing. This phrase did, in fact, repeat multiple times, a bit shallow at the end. Water surrounded them and was above them, as if gravity didn't matter to them. The creatures in the sea seemed to be relaxed either way, almost ignoring Marx's out-of-pitch screaming.

Bun was hardly doing enough to keep himself from laughing.

"Marx, quit it!" Fumu finally said, chuckling anyways. "It's just a matter of time before they actually attack you!"

"So?" Marx stopped screaming and changed his voice into a lower, but amused one. "I can kick them away. I've spent enough time on this ball to own someone with one kick."

"But-"

"Hold on."

He inhaled deeply, and yelled: "I CAME IN LIKE A-"

"NO."

Marx laughed and jumped off of his ball, almost gently, and into the nearest chunk of floating water.

"Aw, come on, Fumu~" he said playfully, kicking water towards her direction. "We didn't have fun at our last stop."

Fumu glared at him for a moment or two, then broke out into a smile.

"When we get back to Popstar, I promise you, you'll have fun."

Marx frowned as a puff fish swam by him.

"Nobody keeps their promises," he murmured, but Fumu didn't hear him. Instead, she turned to her brother, who was unloading a huge box of rice.

"Need help with that?" she finally asked.

"Nah, I'm fine," he said, but gratefully gave the box to her. In one swift move, she yanked the box from his arms and put it on her head, having no trouble at all with keeping it's balance. With a smile she walked towards the next fountain, leaving Bun open mouthed.

"You're sister's nice when she's not bossing someone around," said Marx, leaping from the floating chunk of water. "And muscular."

"She could NEVER do that in the first place," murmured Bun. "But at least she's not depressed anymore. Maybe that was the side affect of being touched by Nightmare."

Marx lifted an eyebrow, blushing.

"What?"

"She got kidnapped by Nightmare, which lured Kirby right into his trap, but he lost anyways. Weird, huh?" He scratched his head.

But Marx still looked interested, yet he wasn't blushing anymore.

"She should get side effects. Being held by the hands that murdered millions- no, BILLIONS- would be horrifying. In fact, just gazing into his eyes is enough to traumatize you for days."

As Bun gave him a confused look, he shrugged his nonexistent shoulders.

"Many people of my kind have seen someone go mad because of Nightmare. Once a demon beast chased me."

Bun gasped.

"How'd you live?"

Marx stopped himself, as if he'd said something wrong, but just when he opened his mouth to speak again, Fumu's voice came.

"Guys, do you want to be left behind?"

Bun and Marx looked around, suddenly noticing that they were alone.

"No we don't!" Bun yelled, racing after the group, and skidding to a alt in front of Meta Knight, who was glaring daggers into the jester. "Don't leave me alone with Marx!"

He raced off, leaving Marx alone for a second, staring at the ground, his face unreadable. He couldn't break down now. Everybody would question why, and he'd have to explain. and then they'd laugh that cruel, stupid laugh he always heard from the jerks.

Right before he annihilated them.

"Marx okay-poyo?"

Marx looked up, seeing Kirby, looking concerned. He was about to smile until he realized something.

He was TOUCHING him.

He cringed, stepping back a foot or two, baring his fangs.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't DO that!" he hissed, an inhuman hiss that made Kirby deflate a bit, as if shot in the heart. Marx frowned, hiding his fangs and then stepping towards Kirby.

Uncomfortably, he nuzzled him. Not like how he first met him, but it made Kirby feel reassured, smiling. Marx stepped back, staring.

"Why do you care, huh?" he asked, but his voice carried no hate in it. "Nobody else ever cared about my sensitivity."

Kirby put his arm stump to his heart, circling it as if emphasizing it, then put his other arm stump close to Marx. Realizing Marx wasn't uncomfortable, he touched his chest as well.

"Friends-poyo!" he squealed childishly.

Marx blinked.

"Friends? Saying that you're a Galaxy Soldier makes me feel weird. It's more like your some normal kid in this universe, just bringing happiness to everyone. Aren't warriors usually more serious? And don't care about making friends or not, in worry that they might lose them?"

Kirby shrugged in a way that said, 'Old people have their way,' then dropped his arm stump when noticing that Marx was baring his fangs again.

"Sorry-poyo," he said nervously, scratching his head.

"Kirby, Marx, come on or we're leaving you to be eaten by those fish!" yelled Bun, who, later, added under his breath, "They do NOT look friendly."

The two turned around to meet face-to-face with several giant fish, which were made up of a mix of bright colors, their teeth as big as them. Perhaps they had heard Marx's yelling and were not pleased. Either way, the two didn't think they would escape the fish by simply staring at them.

Marx jumped on his ball, grabbing Kirby's arm by his teeth.

"RUN!"

...

Marx landed on his stomach, panting, as Kirby face planted next to him. They had dove into the first tent, which was the only one that was finished, much to Fumu's dismay, and had managed to close the flaps in a rush. Now that they looked back at the situation, they laughed.

"We... lived!" he gasped, a smile growing on his face.

Kirby giggled then checked behind him.

"Bad fishy-poyo!"

"I think I bothered them. I should learn to listen to that Fumu girl, huh, Pinky?"

"If you'd listen to me," said Fumu from outside. "You would have heard that this was King Dedede's tent! That guy will take our food again!"

"Eat it before he does! Claim your territory! Seriously, Kirby does it all the time!"

He opened the flap of the tent cautiously by nudging it with his head, then exited, gesturing to the puffball, who burped as if in coincidence.

"Hey, sis is back!" chortled Bun.

Fumu didn't notice him.

"Then he'd give us the death sentence." She crossed her arms, puffing her cheeks. "He's so annoying."

"Then why not revolt against him? You could be the new queen."

Fumu's eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hand, hiding an amused smile and giggling.

"No, I couldn't. Besides, I don't know how to rule a kingdom."

Marx laughed out loud.

"Hey, hey, hey you're kidding! You're smarter than all the Cappies combined! You should be a teacher or a political leader or something!"

Fumu smiled shyly.

"I am planning to be that when I grow up. Maybe a programmer. Or trader. Or teacher. Or doctor. Maybe a politician, as you said."

"You do like to speak what's on your mind."

Marx stretched in a way that made everyone's eyes widen. The way he stretched was absolutely adorable. He would make himself taller by stand on the tips of his toes, closing his eyes as if deep in thought and seemingly pout.

"Being chased by those fish made me tired. You sure the land we're on is stable?"

Before anyone could answer, he jumped up and down, stomping the ground he was on. He stopped when he somehow created a crack in the ground, suddenly embarrassed.

"Yeah, we are," said Bun, smirking. "Try not to make us drown, huh, Marx?"

"I didn't know I'd actually do that! Are you SURE this ground is stable?"

"Yes," murmured Fumu.

"But we might fall when we're sleeping!"

"Marx, we'll be-"

"And then I'll lose my ball in the rubble!" Marx started hyperventilating. "And I'll never see it again, and I'll cry again, and then I'll never leave this place, and become a hobo, and then-"

_ "MARX, WE'LL BE FINE!"_


	16. Chapter 16

'No, no, no, no, no...'

Marx couldn't get up. He just couldn't.

He could hear the footsteps of the humans behind him, the humans that he had seen earlier. They had chased him, with him easily outrunning them, until he had fallen off of his ball, falling headfirst in a large pile of leaves.

He could hear their boss yell, "There he is!" followed by "The demon beast!," "I'm gonna kill it!," and, "Not before I get to choke him!"

He struggled to get up, but got up with no avail, feeling a hand on his back, much to his dismay, and being turned around so he could see his captors. Three males, one being the alpha, and a small girl staring at him. He couldn't see their faces, he could only tell their other characteristics.

The boys each had a wisp of black hair, with the non-alphas sneering at him. The girl had short, lavender hair, which almost matched Marx's skin tone, but that's not the first thing he noticed about her.

The girl held his ball, which caused him to tremble with fury. The alpha seemed to sense this change of attitude, because he held on tighter.

"Des?" squeaked the girl. She had an accent which seemed both familiar and unfamiliar to Marx. "This is it? The demon beast that attacked our village? I-it's cute..."

'Des' turned to his glare onto her.

"Sure, idiot," he barked, shaking Marx violently. "Say that as it rips your face off!"

"I don't wanna kill it!"

'Des' chuckled, pushing the girl a few feet back with his free arm, knocking Marx's ball out of her arms.

"I always knew you were a wuss..."

Marx, who had seen insulting- no, FELT it- before wanted to defend the girl, but all he could manage under the circumstances was a soft, whimpered, "H-hey..."

The second boy, the one on his left, laughed a cruel laugh and snatched Marx away from Des.

"Hey, he likes you, May!" he almost hissed, slamming Marx into the ground. But Marx didn't realize he was on the ground.

May... May... Where'd he heard that before?

Before he could remember, he was smashed into the wall by the two non-alphas, looking face-to-face with Des.

"Why aren't you fighting?" he spat. "Why don't you have those stupid wings of yours? Why are you acting so innocent so people could die?"

"I-I'm not-!"

"SHUT UP."

"You shut up, Desmond."

The other two males exchanged nervous glances. Nobody knew Des' real name, except them and a few close friends. But even THEY didn't DARE say it. But Des hardly let it pass his mind.

He rummaged through his backpack, an item that Marx hadn't noticed earlier. It was about the size of his ball, which caused him to wince and thrash around.

"Where is it?!" he screamed, eyes wild. "Don't you dare pop it!"

Des glanced over his shoulder.

"What does that mean?"

Marx saw the ball, now again in the arms of the girl, and Des met his gaze. His sneer turned more dark.

"May," he chuckled. "Bring it over here."

"No! You'll hurt it!"

Des ignored her, taking a pencil out of his backpack. It only took a second to realize what he was going to do.

"NO!" Marx was barely being held down now. He was thrashing and screaming and sobbing and barely able to control all his emotions.

"NO! PLEASE, NO! I NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG! PLEASE!"

The other boys were now hesitating.

"Uh... Des, this guy is losing it," said the second warily.

"M-maybe we should stop..." said the third, in the most persuasive voice he could muster.

But Des was unaffected.

"Maybe we should poke out his eyes first. Or cut off his foot, just for the fun of it. Make sure no more demon beasts mess with us. Or just to make fun of how armless he is."

"D-Des...?"

Des was about to make a statement, but realized the boy wasn't aiming the unfinished sentence at him. He was aiming it at Marx, who had abruptly stopped thrashing.

"So... you think I'm a demon..."

Marx looked up at Des, his eyes not the same. Before he was a helpless jester. Now his eyes contained pure insanity, and his voice didn't even tremble. The boys dropped Marx, but he landed on his feet as they backed a few yards.

"**HA... HA... HOW... ****_FUNNY._**"

"D-DES!" yelped the second boy.

The girl stared at Marx blankly, as if she had seen him before.

But Marx didn't notice.

"**YOU... YOU HURT MY BALL...**"

"W-what a-a-are y-yo-you doing?!" stuttered Des, sobbing.

Marx bared his teeth. On his back, hands- no, WINGS, with claws were forming.

**"YOU THREATENED TO POKE MY EYE OUT..."**

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"**YOU CALLED ME ARMLESS...**"

"Get away from me!"

Des scrambled back, knocking down his backpack.

"**YOU... YOU... I ONLY WANTED TO PLAY... MAMA... I WANNA PLAY WITH YOU...**"

Marx looked down, face covered, but when the four thought it was calm, Marx lifted his head again, with a look of horrifying, tranquil fury.

Either way, his face still produced a twitching smile.

And he lunged.

**_ "I'LL KILL YOU!"_**

...

"Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?!"

Sir Meta Knight quietly held a hologram of Gooey in his hands, sighing, as the blob yelled at him, some of his speech mixed into a language that he didn't understand, and a bit mixed into confusing babbling, which he had acquired while speaking baby with Blob.

"Excuse me, sir," Gooey finally said. "But you almost woke up Blob. Why'd you call in the first place? And how'd you know I would respond to 'pancakes?'"

Meta Knight had to chuckle at that, his eyes turning pink. He remembered Kirby hurling himself at Gooey for stealing his legendary pancakes, as Gooey screamed, "NO! I WILL AVENGE MY PANCAKES!"

The fight had ended when Kirby had almost inhaled Gooey, and finally, King Dedede had decided to snatch the pancakes for himself. A few months after, at Halloween, he would be covered with eggs, as Grill, Kirby, and Gooey laughed at the top of their lungs and ran away.

"I just knew."

"Well, why did you call me?" Gooey repeated. "Like seriously? Me? Out of all people? In the middle of the night?"

Meta Knight looked around uncomfortably.

"Well, I wasn't contacting YOU, I was contacting Sir Arthur."

Gooey looked hurt for a moment, but his hologram grabbed something that looked like a notebook and pencil.

"What do you want to tell him?"

Meta Knight looked around uncomfortably, until realizing he was alone.

"Tell him I need to talk to him. Tell him I need to talk about Sir Galacta Knight."


	17. Chapter 17

"AAAAARRRRGHHH!"

Kirby was woken up by the screaming so quickly, he bonked his head on the tent pole nearby. Shaking his head to clear it, he saw the tent's flap slightly open, revealing a set of footprints on the 'unstable' sand. Kirby rushed out of the tent expecting Fumu to scold him on waking up really late again, but instead saw Marx. When he was about to wave at him, he noticed something that made him catch his breath and turn pale.

He was hanging UPSIDE DOWN.

His hat was a few feet away, and he was flailing around, trying to attack his captor but was failing miserably.

His captor, however, did not seem amused.

The demon was an octopus-like creature, looking similar to the first demon beast Kirby had ever fought. It had one arm wrapped tightly around Marx's left foot, and used the rest of it's legs securing itself to a nearby floating water chunk. It's eyes glowed with a turquoise feel, and they seemed to wander over to Kirby. Suddenly, the eyes widening, obviously smelling the defeat of his brethren all over him.

With a hiss, it jumped out of the water, landing with a SPLAT in front of him. It however, did not let go of Marx, and this caused Kirby to strike a fighting stance.

NOBODY messed with his friends.

"K-Kirby what're you doing?!" yelped Marx.

"Poyo!" Kirby yelled back, his eyes set on the demon beast. It seemed to sense his tension, because it hissed, laughing, and held Marx closer to it, swirling him around and making Marx's eyes lose their focus.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not your toy!" screamed Marx, biting the tentacle using his fangs. The demon hissed, hurling Marx to the ground. He somehow gained his stance again, trying to comprehend his surroundings.

"Kirby, where did you go?" he finally yelled, frantic. "Don't leave me with this thing!"

"Poyo?" Kirby ran to his friend as the octopus shook it's tentacle, slowly building up it's rage. Quickly, he grabbed his foot, causing him to yelp again and attempt to run away.

"Noo! Get away from me!" he yelled, until his eyes adjusted.

He blinked.

"Oh... Hi."

"Hipoyo," he murmured, slightly offended.

Marx coughed awkwardly, then gestured to the demon beast, who was regaining it's normal posture.

"May I see you fight? It would be amazing."

Kirby nodded with the same amount of awkwardness, taking in a few moments to analyze his opponent. It wouldn't take much to fight him, just an ability that he could find. He stared at the octopus as it produced multiple offspring to chase after him, but Kirby easily inhaled these smaller enemies and swallowed them, along with the flames.

Jumping in the air, he acquired his flaming Fire Kirby hat, and landed on the ground, glaring at his opponent once again.

He actually half-expected for Sir Meta Knight to be there on a nearby cliff or higher ground than them and shout, "It's Fire Kirby!"

"You... you actually inhaled it..." whispered Marx, but he looked shocked instead of scared, but also trembled. "Mais ...ils m'ont dit..."

Kirby didn't bother finding out what he had said; he spat fire back at the demon beast- three times to get it to finally evaporate away, and it took more force on the third time.

The Fire Kirby hat evaporated into thin air as well, as if it had never been there in the first place.

Kirby turned to Marx, who looked as if he were about to burst out crying.

"I... I'm so sorry," he whimpered instead. "I wandered out because I had a bad dream... and then I bumped into the Octagon..."

Kirby nodded reassuringly, then froze when he realized Marx had known which demon beast it was. He decided to let it pass his mind, and was about to head back into his tent and sleep some more, pretending that this never happened so Fumu wouldn't get into her 'You'd-seriously-do-that-without-adult-supervision?' speech. But instead, he was stopped again when Marx began to sniff softly.

"N...nobody's ever done that to me... You helped me?... But... why...?" Marx looked up again, his pupils larger and cheeks puffed, making him look like a stuffed doll.

Kirby smiled and pointed to his heart again.

"Friends-poyo?"

Marx looked at him, eyes wide- no, almost AFRAID- and then finally DID burst out crying.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Marx sat on the ground on buried his face in his hat, which he had regained, as if the hat drowned out all his sorrows and regrets.

After a minute or two, Marx stopped to look up, and saw Kirby again.

"Sorry, I get... a LITTLE emotional," he sniffed, then laughed. "Look at me, a little?"

He got up again, as he used his hat to wipe off his last tear.

"Well, there are a lot of things you don't know about me~"

"Find out-poyo?" asked Kirby.

Marx paused, staring at the puff.

"Sure... You'll find out... I know you will..."

...

"SIR ARTHUR KNIGHT!"

Sir Arthur inhaled quickly and looked up from his breakfast, taking out his sword, and pointing it to the noise. What he found was a frightened Gooey at the end of the tip, and he sheathed his sword again.

"I apologize for frightening you, child," he murmured, going back to his breakfast. "I thought you were a demon beast."

"It's OK, a lot of people make that mistake!"

"Wait, wh-"

Gooey jumped on the table, lifting his tongue in the air and making it form an X. Behind him, a choir could be heard as a spotlight appeared above him.

"Sir Arthur, you must speak with Meta Knight!" he said triumphantly. "I know you gave me the hologram-maker on purpose so you would not speak with him, but this is urgent!"

He dramatically put his tongue down, and leaned closer.

"I think he might have a girlfriend! It's very tragic, he does not seem to know what to do with her! You must help him, Sir Arthur, because you're his only hope!"

The light died down, along with the choir, and it was silent between the two for a moment, until the words sank in and Sir Arthur chuckled, standing up.

"Girlfriend? I doubt it. He could hardly make a friend back then."

"But-"

"BUT," he added, turning around. "That does NOT mean I will not communicate with him. Thank you very much for delivering the message."

He paused, and a smile formed on his lips as he put on his mask.

"You should speak with Falspar. He might like you're way of, shall we say, 'diplomatic speaking.'"

**Author's Note: That moment with Gooey jumping on the table is what I'll call an 'Hallelujah Moment'. For those who know Kill la Kill, it's those moments Mako has. Also, Galacta Knight is usually thought of as a girl, so I made Gooey think that as well ^^' Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	18. Chapter 18

Fumu woke up in a dark room again. Not the tent she had fallen asleep in, but completely pitch black, and she could see nothing.

"Oh, not again!" she groaned, remembering the place.

'YES AGAIN, MEANIE,' came a response, and she soon reappeared in a small, but lit up room.

Because of the light, she could tell that their was a gaming machine next to her, with big, bold words writing 'Pac-Man' on it. In front of the machine was a small girl, with curly hair put up in a pony tail. The same smile stayed on her face as it always did. Her usual pure white attire was changed into pure blue, along with her bow, but she hoisted the same white parasol over her shoulder.

How she managed to balance it without holding an end, Fumu did NOT know, and didn't want to know.

Instead, she sat down on one of the chairs, making herself feel comfortable.

"Hey, Yume," she murmured.

"Shh, I'm on level 254!"

Yume somehow managed to push her parasol back so it could bump into Fumu's nose.

"And my name's Yasahiro! I don't care if I'm in human form!"

"You're human form's a girl."

"Are you questioning your own gender? Of COURSE I'm a girl!"

Fumu snickered quietly, then murmured, "You aren't exactly 'peaceful, calm, and wise.'"

"Can you just call me Yasahiro and shut up? You're messing me up!"

Fumu sighed, crossing her arms as Yume progressed to level 255.

"Ha!" cheered Yume. "Take that you pixelated fiends!"

"...You really have lost your mind haven't you?"

"And WHERE did you put my Cola? Seriously, why do I bring you in here, to play games?!"

Fumu sighed, dropping her arms and rolling her eyes.

"A RAY of sunshine."

Yume turned back around to scowl at her, turning around from her game, and Pac-Man was eaten by the blue ghost, and was scored a loser.

"Merde à vous, Blinky!" she cursed, her face darkening. "I will have your soul!"

"Calm down, you have the rest of your life to complete that game."

Yume thought about this for a while, and her smile was back.

"So, what did you need to ask me?"

"I didn't need to ask you for-"

Fumu stopped herself, when she saw Yume continue playing. She HAD a question, it just wouldn't make sense, especially to a person like Yume.

"Maybe you could ask me another time, Puma," said Yume, somehow pausing the game. "Your friends need you at the moment."

"Thanks." Fumu's eyes crossed over to Yume's hand, which had formed a small projectile.

It grew immensely in a few seconds, and soon turned into a vortex of some sort. She walked to it, ready to jump in, then stopped.

"Also, Yume?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"Try to contain yourself. If you lose control, then you'll have to go back to that cell again, where you'll be treated even worse than you are right now."

Yume shivered for a minute, causing Fumu to sense her tension. Fumu couldn't see who was hurting Yume, and why, but she seemed to be in a more god/manly shape when this happened. That's why Fumu questioned her gender.

Which brought her back to the subject:

"Are you a guy or a girl? 'Cause seriously, I don't know anymore."

"You'll have to find out, hmm?"

Yume hummed, the game still paused, and swirled her parasol around, then stopped, her face blank.

"What's a guy?"

**Author's Note: Yume's a half-OC (can any of you guess who's her actual identity?) She won't be that important in this story- unless you look closely- and will instead effect a story I'll write down named 'La vie est drôle' (another Kirby fanfic) Hope you enjoyed this really short chapter!**


	19. Chapter 19

"And how could you do that without adult supervision? Meaning me?"

Fumu was extra annoyed today, partly because of her dream, partly because of Kirby and Marx, and partly because of the fact that Dedede actually had the nerve to threaten to bonk her on the head with his hammer in the middle of the night.

She had actually judo-flipped him over her shoulder, despite his weight, and had stomped out of the tent, bumping into Kirby and Marx who had to explain the whole story to her.

And now, jumping on the clouds of Skyhigh, she had told the two that there would be no more candies until they had reached Cavius. Marx began whimpering and laying on her head, and Kirby actually began crying after a moment of silence.

"Quit complaining, you two," Bun said finally. "It's getting annoying."

"Hey, hey, hey, YOU'RE not the one that has to deal with this punishment!" cried Marx, rolling off of Fumu's head anyways and landing on his feet. "No chocolate? Nobody can live with something like that!"

"YOU'RE the one who got caught by a demon beast, right?" she answered flatly. "And don't try me. Maybe I'll stop you from eating other junk food, too."

"Those are the things that are keeping me alive, mm-hmm!"

"Poyo," agreed Kirby, nodding and rubbing his stomach.

"You could message Silica and Joe, Kirby," Meta Knight quietly said from next to him. "They'd probably miss you. Silica does enjoy chasing you whenever you mess up."

Kirby smiled, remembering Silica yelling, "GIVE ME BACK MY BEANS!" as she chased Joe and him through the king's trap of a picnic.

It was a good day.

But now as he thought back on it, it made him sad.

"Sili-poyo Joe OK-poyo?"

Meta Knight looked surprised, but he nodded.

"Yes. In fact, they are...'working' in the castle right now."

Kirby's smile widened when the older puff emphasized on the word 'working.' The word 'working' was usually used around King Dedede whenever it meant trashing his castle or something.

Looking at Marx getting ready to sob under Fumu's glare, he wondered if he could teach the castle language to him.

Now that he thought about it, he realized Marx would rather deal with a person like Dedede head-on instead of hiding.

Especially when he did that strange glare. For some reason, Marx would only do it to Dedede (and maybe Escargon), as if he sensed an aura around him that angered- no, SCARED him. It would make his own aura darker around him. So much, it made Kirby feel it as well.

He always shivered when he thought about those moments and hoped that Dedede wouldn't bother him when they got back to Popstar. But now he realized why he was such good friends with Grill.

Now Marx had went to the back of the group, kicking his ball absentmindedly.

"Why did she take our babies away from us?" he whimpered.

Kirby felt so bad that he wanted to pet him, but when he outstretched his arm stump, Marx jumped back, biting back a scream.

"No touchy! I don't feel in the mood to put up with that!"

Kirby sighed. He had never known anyone with this kind of problem. He'd seen sensitive people, Fumu being a great example, but not like THIS.

"Isn't there any place SAFE, de gesu?" murmured Escargon, eying Fumu cautiously. "We could fall to our deaths in the middle of the night!"

"Sis, I'll pay you one thousand Dededen if you do that to them," whispered Bun to Fumu, snickering.

Fumu grinned.

"The place around the Fountain is secure," she told Escargon and Dedede. "Don't worry."

"You flipped me over your shoulder, zoi," murmured Dedede. "I think I have a good reason to worry."

"SURE, you do," muttered Marx, but stopped short when Fumu glared at him again.

"EXCUSE me?"

"Nothing..." He grinned, whispering, "Fat penji."

"What?"

"Nothing," he repeated, but had a small, triumphant smile on his lips as if it was his destiny to say it.

"Hey, look at those!" said Bun in a hushed voice, pointing to a pair of wide-eyed, small octopuses. They looked familiar in a creepy way, but their eyes were empty, watching them without any movement.

"Those guys are on top ten list of animals that will either fascinate you or give you nightmares," whispered Marx, inching next to Kirby. "They look like Octagon. Did they follow us here?"

Kirby shook his head and stared deeply into the eyes. He seemed to get tired just by looking at them, and was about to fall asleep, when suddenly, Bun nudged him.

"Kirby, don't those things look REALLY familiar?"

Kirby nodded, eyes trying to stay awake. They DID seem familiar, except...

He slapped his forehead. Who could forget eyes like that? They were so EMPTY. So much without... without...

What?

"Let's go, guys," whispered Fumu, her voice shaky. "Those things are starting to creep me out."

...

"Ugh, why do you have to be right, huh?"

Marx had put his ball REALLY close to the Fountain and was now jumping around, testing the strength of the floor and how it would put up with their weight.

The floor would not give away.

"Why are you so overprotective? It's just a ball."

Marx's frown deepened and he stared at Fumu.

"It's not 'just a ball'! It's my only-!"

He stopped himself, glaring at Fumu, before entering his tent. Kirby gave Fumu a side glance, almost angrily, then entered after his friend.


	20. Chapter 20

Marx didn't sleep that night.

Whether it was because of Fumu's temper or the lack of candy, Kirby didn't know.

He just stared at the ceiling, motionlessly, and seemed to be communicating with it by widening his eyes from time to time or just blinking rapidly, as if speaking in Morse code.

Finally, Kirby had had enough.

"Marpoyo?" he whispered.

Marx snapped out of his trance, and looked at Kirby.

"Hey, hey, hey, why'd you interrupt?"

When Kirby gave him an odd look, his face flushed.

"I mean... uh..." He looked as if he wanted to face palm. "You know what? Forget it. Night."

He turned around so his back was to Kirby, but the puff ran to that side and stared at him, eye-to-eye.

"Marpoyo... Hidpoyo?"

"Hid...?" Marx shook his head, and tried to smile reassuringly.

"What do you mean, Kirby?"

"Scared-poyo."

Marx's expression changed from comforting, to confused, to shock, to pure terror in less than four seconds. He turned his back to Kirby again, but when Kirby was about to change sides again, Marx started sniffing.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said in a sad tone. "Could I tell you something?"

"Ya-poyo."

Marx didn't turn around, but Kirby could feel his urge to.

"I've... never seen my dad."

Kirby gasped.

"Neva-poyo?!"

"Never. My mom said he died when I was one -I still remember- but I didn't believe it. Then soon... she left, too. When I was two."

Kirby was silent. Why was he telling him this? Did he have a personal reason?

"..." Marx gulped as if the words were torturing his throat.

"I've served a queen for my whole life. She's... alright," he decided, but his words were as cold as venom, and completely unbelieveable. But then his tone changed, into something that sounded happy, lighter.

"I've heard tales of warriors like you, especially puffballs. For your small stature, you are quite powerful." He chuckled whole-heartedly, and Kirby smiled.

"My friend helped me study about you. He's as much as a genius as me. More, I hate to admit."

Kirby laughed.

"Nice-poyo to Marpoyo?"

Marx nodded absentmindedly, then blinked, and the fear was back in his eyes, if a bit worse.

"I... have to go outside."

...

"WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU?! IF LORD ZERO FINDS OUT- NO, MASTER-!"

"Shut up."

Marx was looking at the floor as a ghost of a girl yelled at him. He instantly had recognized her as Ai. And then she had started yelling at him.

"But," murmured Ai, calmer. "If THEY find out..."

"I'm completely fine, Ai. How's May?"

Ai seemed to forget about the situation, smiling softly.

"May's as beautiful as always. I wish the Queen had her looks. But she's stuck with that-"

Ai stopped mid-sentence, glaring at him.

"Don't change the damn subject."

"I had to tell someone!" shouted Marx, getting up. "And Kirby was the only source of freedom! That little guy's awesome!"

"If anyone-"

"I know, I know, if anyone knew I had said that, I would be killed on the spot. I get it. Leave me alone."

"But-"

"Leave, or I'll tear you apart, like what's in store for Kirby."

Ai hesitated, then put Marx's words together slowly. She smiled, then put a misty hand on his forehead.

"Good luck, Marx," she whispered, turning into a gust of wind, and vanishing. Marx looked at the ground, then looked at the sky.

"I got the sun and moon to fight~" he sang, a smile playing on his lips. "I can destroy him just as easily."

He giggled, a soft, cute giggle that gradually turned into loud, insane cackling. Even after he had stopped, his cruel, but empty laugh echoed in the clearing. But it quickly turned into a soft sobbing that only he and a silhouette in the shadows could hear.

Meta Knight stared at the jester with a hint of sadness from the shadows as he watched him attempt to crack a brave smile.

"He will see," he assured himself, turning back to his tent. "They always see."


	21. Chapter 21

"IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL."

Marx was so happy, sobbing next to the batch of candy Fumu had given him early on Skyhigh, that he didn't even notice they had crash landed on a peculiar planet that was not Cavios, until Fumu bonked him on the head with her map.

"Hey, hey, hey, what gives?" he shouted, frowning.

"This isn't on the map," growled Fumu, glaring down at the paper she had crumpled up. "We just HAD to give the controls to Dedede. As if we didn't have enough problems."

"It isn't my fault, zoi!" The penguin snatched the map and turned it around in his hands, as if trying to read it. "This thing doesn't make any sense! What does 'cord-nut' mean?"

Sword sighed.

"And just when we thought he couldn't get any stupider."

"Agreed," murmured Blade, watching Dedede shove Fumu away.

"How was I supposed to know this place existed, zoi?!" he yelled, pulling the map away from her. "I didn't even know what a coordinate was! It was YOUR fault in the first place, and you got us stuck here!"

"Oh, like you made it easy for us! Stuffing all the food in your STUPID tent!"

Suddenly, both of their faces darkened, the same way Marx's had. Kirby shivered as he heard their voices, as smooth as glass, but as cold as ice. They came face-to-face, barely able to hide their anger.

"Oh, you think you're so smart, zoi?" Dedede said bluntly. "You have no intelligence compared to me."

"You are insufferable, nothing but a salt grain in your kind!" hissed Fumu. "Possibly the stupidest in all the failures you have achieved!"

"As if losing complete control of yourself wasn't enough."

"As if you did any better."

"Hey, hey, hey, quit it!" yelled Marx, standing in between the two. "You're acting like two banshees, you know?"

"Get out of the way," said Dedede, his monotone voice pointed at the jester, but was staring at Fumu. "You know your place."

Marx faltered, staring at the king, and his expression darkened, in a more angry way than both of them combined.

"Of course, your _**HIGHNESS.**_"

He mock-bowed again, but this time, it seemed full of hate, instead of being teasing. Dedede actually looked threatened for a second, but the look vanished as quickly as it had come.

"What're ya staring at, zoi?"

Kirby and the others blinked once and gawked. The three stood around each other as if the moment had never happened, with Fumu not even hissing at him when he shoved her to get out of his way to go to the shuttle, which was hardly damaged.

"We'll just fix it, zoi," he said simply. "Easy as that."

...

"Seems you have trouble keeping your anger in check, hmm?"

Marx turned around, looking straight in the eyes of the knight that stood in front of him.

"Hm. Something you could use against me, huh?" he murmured, staring at the shuttle.

"No. Well, not exactly."

Meta Knight stepped closer to him, almost sadly.

"What?"

Meta Knight cleared his throat, uncomfortably, then walked past the jester.

"You didn't realize what you just did?"

"Just did?"

Meta Knight turned around to face him again.

"I am pretty sure you could be aware of your own actions, if aware at all."

"Listen, I have no idea what you're talking about. I get angry, but I don't lose sense of my actions. I will soon, though," he added in a hushed whisper, which he intended Meta Knight to not hear.

"Well, either way, don't lose your sense on the ship. Maybe Kirby will not be blinded by your game any longer."


	22. Chapter 22

"Big brother!"

In the ruined village, a small blue puff looked around, scared to death. He had seen sights that a normal 20,000 year old puff shouldn't have.

Of course, in puff years, he was barely ten.

The fire was still building up around him, and he was barely fighting enough to stay conscious.

'I saw... I saw him...' he thought. 'He was fighting someone. The puff that attacked the town... Oh, please don't be dead!'

Just the thought of it made his eyes well up with tears, but he sniffed and kept limping towards the source of the fire.

The source was a puffball at least double the years the blue puff was. His features were hidden behind a mask with a cross as the opening. His wings were those of an angel's.

The blue puff could hardly keep himself from being angered by the irony, and he had to bite his lower lip with his fangs to stop himself from screaming with rage. But a voice stopped him short from lunging straight at the older puff.

'Hey, chill out, would you, short stuff?' said his brother's voice. 'Or maybe I'll call you little nii-nii in public.'

The memory made him smile, even though his older brother was always trying to bother him.

But soon the frown returned.

He couldn't lose him as well. He'd already lost his parents. And his other siblings. And all his friends to the fire, for all he knew.

He couldn't lose him. Not now.

He trudged quietly away from the angel puff. It was obvious that his brother wasn't here. Maybe he was looking for him, or was under some rubble? He couldn't just fight the angel puff and leave him alone.

But as he took his fourth step away, he felt a strong pain in his left foot. He fell, and looked down, and with sheer terror, saw a shining, pink, small sword impaled in it.

"Who are you?"

The blue puff's eyes widened even more when he saw the angel knight standing over him, a lance in his hand.

He whimpered and attempted to crawl back, but each movement sent a spark of pain into his foot.

"What'd you do with him?!" he yelped.

"With who?"

"My big brother!"

The angel puff chuckled a cruel cold laugh and lowered the tip of his lance to the floor.

"Oh, the other puff that survived the fire? I took care of him. So stubborn. But that was what made him fun to kill."

He laughed even louder at the puff's horrified expression.

"Oh, don't worry. I made it short. He didn't scream at all."

He lifted his lance, which now glinted with an evil glow.

"You, however..."

He stopped short, staring at the young puff, whose eyes were filled with shock and anger. He seemed to be in a trance, as if trying to recognize him.

But as soon as he did, he dropped his lance in shock.

"No... No!" he yelled, stepping back. He held his head with his hands, his lance clattering away.

"No...NO! NO NO NO NO NO!"

The puff took this as a chance to escape, scooting away by a little, until the puff angel screamed a scream that froze him in his place.

"YOU CAN'T BE!" he shrieked.

Desperately, he hurled himself at the puff to no avail, as the puff had dodged.

"What did you did with my brother?" he whimpered.

"SHUT UP! HOW CAN YOU BE ALIVE?!"

"Leave us alone!"

The angel knight hissed, eyes glowing, lunging the puff again.

But this time, he didn't miss.

...

Meta Knight sighed as he stared at the hologram of Sir Arthur and Gooey, who had decided to stick around.

"He's REALLY familiar," he murmured stubbornly. "He and that Marx kid. You think they're related?"

"Galacta Knight had no relatives," whispered Sir Arthur, so sadly, even Gooey seemed to slump a bit. "If so, they would have been very disappointed. Or dead."

"You're telling me Galacta Knight was forced into an ice cage." said Meta Knight. "Why's that? And who would do that?"

"Galacta Knight acted as if he were possessed by Dark Matter. No offense, Gooey," he added seeing the grief-stricken look on the blob's face.

"It's OK. Just don't use that name around Blob. She starts crying."

"..."

"But anyways, forget about that!" Gooey's happy expression returned, along with his hyper voice. "Who was the one that locked him up?"

"Nobody knew." Sir Arthur cleared his throat uncomfortably. "He had many enemies. Even Nightmare wanted to recruit him as one of his top demons. It even worked out in a strange way."

"That strong?" asked Meta Knight.

"Yes."

"Were you close to him?"

"..."

"Hey!" Gooey nudged Sir Arthur with his tongue, then lifted it in the air, creating an X with it. Even from his spot, Meta Knight could tell their was some kind of spotlight on them.

"You can't hide things forever! Some times it's better to let things out before your friend finds it out the wrong time! Like during their battle!"

"...Battle?"

"Yeah! Fight, square off! Battle royal! Combat! Blitzkreig! C-"

"I think he understands now," said Meta Knight. "Thank you, Gooey."

"No problem, knight man!"

He dropped his tongue and almost inhaled it back in his mouth.

"Well, Sir Arthur, didn't that make sense? The truth will set you free!"

"No, it doesn't," murmured Sir Arthur. He didn't make eye contact with either of them, and there was a small tension between the three, until he spoke again.

"To be honest, I don't remember anything with Galacta Knight. I tried to forget him after..."

His voice trailed off, and he looked down at the floor again.

"Well, maybe we should talk another time. Kirby and the others are beginning to wake up," said Gooey, his smile still on his face. "Tell Marx I said hi."

"Yes..." said Sir Arthur, sounding as if he were holding back tears. "Tell him I said hi."


	23. Chapter 23

"This is creepy."

After escaping the planet ?, they had reached Cavios, but not it wasn't the place they had expected it to be.

Bun was watching all of its citizens very carefully, while they stared back, their expressions blank.

There was death written all over their faces.

"They're used to their utopian way of life."

Bun turned to his sister.

"Utopia? What's a utopia?"

Fumu was about to open her mouth to speak, but instead, Marx spoke.

"Are you speaking about the movies, stories, or just the disambiguated meaning?"

"D-disambi-what...?"

"Utopia," he said, his voice strong and clear. "is a community or society possessing highly desirable or near perfect qualities. The word was coined by Sir Thomas More in Latin for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and imagined societies portrayed in fiction. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia."

His eyes met Bun's.

"In other words, a perfect society with no choices."

"No... choices...?" whispered Fumu.

"You lost me at disambiguation."

Marx seemed to shrug this off.

"Disambiguation," he murmured. "refers to the removal of ambiguity by making something clear. Disambiguation narrows down the meaning of words and it's a good thing. This word makes sense if you break it down. Dis means "not," ambiguous means "unclear," and the ending -tion makes it a noun."

"You could've just said that in the beginning."

"It's safer to sound ingenious and inspirational around these people. Then you'll know what to expect."

Bun shuddered and progressed forward, if not moving faster and trying to avoid everyone's gaze. But Fumu was interested.

"Are they really dangerous?" she whispered. "Like REALLY dangerous?"

"Don't know. I've never been in a utopia before." He sounded awestruck. "Or maybe I have. But not like this..."

Fumu could see what he meant. She felt like the odd on out in this community. Houses were lined perfectly on the streets, but people seemed to be ignoring each.

Almost out of... fear.

"Marx, in a utopia, there are elders, right?"

Marx paused for a minute, as if scanning his brain.

"To the best of my knowledge, yes. At least, most of them. Why?"

"Well..." She coughed uncomfortably and looked around her.

People were staring at her, but not out of annoyance or anger. More out of desperation than anything.

"These people are scaring me," she whispered, inching closer to her brother.

"I think they're scaring Kirby more than anyone else," he whispered back, with all the courage he could muster.

"Kirby?"

Fumu looked behind her to see if Bun was joking. He wasn't.

Kirby was close to Meta Knight, looking as if he were resisting the urge to run to a random house and hide. His eyes were wide, and were designed in a different, less cute way. They were light blue, with a lighter blue dot in the center, surrounded by circles with the same lighter blue color. He was darting his eyes back and forth, as if the people were demon beasts. For a second, because of his intensely angry eyes, he even almost looked like Devil Kirby, minus the wings and crooked smile.

He was terrified.

Meta Knight seemed to sense his fear, because he looked back at him, eyes green.

"Kirby, Sword, Blade, or I can stay and help you feel better. Not for long, but I think you're scaring everyone else."

Fumu wondered if he got the idea from her own frightened expression, or the fact that Dedede and Escargon were far in the front of the group, turning each second to see if Kirby was still following them.

Kirby seemed to hear this statement, because he looked up for a minute, but whatever he saw in the group scared him, because he stared at the floor again.

"Poyo..." he murmured worriedly.

"Hey, hey, hey," whispered Marx. "We're almost through, OK? You won't lose when I'm around, nope nope!"

"Scary-poyo," he murmured back, once the group had decided to walk away quicker.

Marx leaned towards him and smiled.

"I'm going ahead. Try to follow and not freak out, OK?"

"OK-poyo."

Marx rushed away, kicking his ball and hissing at anyone who would dare come near it.

Kirby looked down, his eyes regaining their normal design and color.

Slowly... very slowly, he turned around, and came face to face with a gorgeous woman.

Her face was beautiful, with no wrinkles or spots, and she had red eyes, her round glasses shielding them. She had twin braids on either side of her perfectly shaped head, which came down and stopped at her waist. Her crown was spiked and pure gold, and her dress was a mix of red and white. Her wings shifted from one of a fairy's, to a mix of complex writing from ancients floating around her, making her wings completely transparent.

She watched Kirby through her glasses, emotionless. Kirby stared back, his face as blank as her's. Then, he walked away, slowly, trying to not look back.

If he looked back, he'd see all the pain written on her face.

...

...

"Of course YOU would be involved. I cannot believe you are actually immortal."

"Ahahaha! You think I'll let you control me anymore? That girl is capable of more than you could ever think!"

"You said that for the last one, fool. And see what happened to him."

"...ahahaha..."

"SHUT UP."

"...ahaha...AHAHA...AHAHAHAHAHA! **HEHEEHEHEHE! AAHHHHAAAAAHAHAHA! I CAN'T BREATHE! STOP!**"

"...That's all you ever do. Laugh. In fact, that's what ALL of them do. Why don't you ever stop? ...W...why?"

"Tch. You aren't getting the hang of it! Why don't you just be friends with Kirby?"

"Friends? With that pathetic being? Why would I want to be friends with HIM? After all he did?"

"Aren't friends all you were asking for in the first place?"

"..."


	24. Chapter 24

"Why didn't you tell him anything?"

Gooey had been following Sir Arthur around the whole time after the hologram conversation. Of course, Sir Arthur had tried to ignore him, but it was hard to ignore a child with an amazingly long tongue, slithering around you like a clay blueberry.

"For the thirtieth time, I don't think he needs to hear any more news about his brother's death."

"He deserves to know!" countered Gooey. "He deserves to know if he wants to face his girlfriend!"

"He is NOT his girlfriend!"

"Wait, so now you're saying she's a dude?"

Sir Arthur gave an exasperated sigh and tried to walk away, but Gooey blocked his path.

"Listen, it's better to know EVERYTHING about your dead- or alive- family. It's better to know the truth than walk around in the dark."

"It's better to know about your own brother's death? I'd rather not."

"Then just be wrong!" yelled Gooey awkwardly. "Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it!"

"I'd rather be wrong than hurt Sir Meta Knight anymore."

"..."

Gooey puffed his cheeks stubbornly, but moved a bit so Sir Arthur could leave. Sir Arthur was about to step out of the throne room, but hesitated.

"At least you could tell him how he acted, what his personality was, and stuff."

"No."

"You're mean."

Sir Arthur looked up, surprised.

"Mean?"

"The biggest of all meanies."

"I thought your father was the meanie of all meanies."

"He's dead."

"He is a god-"

"HE'S DEAD, DAMMIT."

Sir Arthur stepped back in surprise as Gooey's face and voice darkened in a way they shouldn't have. But this went away quickly as Gooey's stature went back to normal and he looked as if he were about to cry.

"He's dead to me. Don't bring him up, OK?"

"..."

"OK? Good. Never. Never bring him up. He isn't coming back. He won't hurt anyone anymore."

"..."

"OK! Fine! Give me the silent treatment! See if I care!"

He puffed up his cheeks and snatched the hologram-maker (as he would call it) and stormed out of the throne room, fuming something about how mouths and brains worked. Arthur stared at him as he walked off as well.


	25. Chapter 25

"Again, why are we dragging this puff around, zoi?"

"Why do you keep bothering Kirby?"

"Good point."

Dedede and Escargon, ever since they had reached Mecheye, had started to talk about Marx. It wasn't just because the machine-like planet around them gave them a reason to worry, it was because Marx seemed ACCUSTOMED to this planet.

Whenever an inhabitant, if not trying to destroy them, saw them, they would wave to Marx or give him a curt nod, to which he responded with his cute smile.

Then Fumu asked the question on everyone's minds:

"Hey, Marx, have you come before?'

"I've come here, yup yup!" squeaked Marx. "I've had to study here before!"

"About what?"

"Astronomical research, utopian studies, antidisestablishmentarianism, pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism resulting from robo-"

"Dude, are you speaking our language?" asked Bun, gaping.

Fumu looked just as shocked.

"I never knew you were that educated, Marx," she breathed.

Marx cleared his throat uncomfortably, resulting in an awkward silence which was broken by Escargon.

"That's the fountain, isn't it?" he asked, pointing to a non-mechanical object. It glowed weakly, but was glowing. "Yep. It is! Isn't that peachy, de gesu?"

He raced towards it, dragging Dedede away as if he didn't trust Marx's 'endearing' act. Especially not after seeing his fangs. More than once.

Fumu followed, a frown on her face. She wasn't fond of know-it-alls, but Marx seemed to be honestly smart. Not Escargon smart, but something more...

She glanced at Marx, who was flushed with embarrassment. He didn't seem to enjoy this knowledge. He always frowned whenever he was reminded of his 'smartness.'

'It's always something, isn't it~?' sang a low voice in her head.

Fumu winced as she remembered Yume's -MANLY- voice. Yume seemed to smile as if she knew what Fumu was thinking- as she ALWAYS seemed to do- and disappear from her head, leaving her dazed.

"Hey, sis, you OK?"

Bun's voice snapped her back into the real world.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Fumu's eyes caught Meta Knight's, and there was a moment of tension, as if he were reading her expression, but he soon turned away, as if he saw something that disgusted him. Blade and Sword noticed this, too, and asked what was wrong.

"Nothing," the knight murmured back. "Just... the Fountain is giving off strange negative vibrations."

He speed-walked away towards the fountain, asking Escargon whether or not he was ready to take on Nova. Fumu personally didn't know how Kirby extracted the energy used to reach Nova from the fountains. Did he use the Star Rod? Or did he just stand in front of the Fountain?

Fumu blinked in confusion as her Bun gave her a strange stare. Then she noticed she was smiling.

...

"Out of ALL times, you had to make me look insane in front of BOTH my brother and the most respected knight in the whole galaxy!"

Fumu was fuming at Yume, who was smiling, as usual. Yume didn't seem effected by Fumu's anger like most would be, but instead was staring off into space.

"I'm an extraterrestrial. I seek knowledge," she- HE- murmured. "Besides, there was a horse in a dress, girl, can you BLAME me?"

"WHERE?"

"Next to the Dark Matter-infested child."

Fumu frowned, suddenly snapping out of her rage.

"Dark Matter... infested...?"

Yume's eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oopsie! I can't tell you anything about that yet! It's FATE~"

She twirled her parasol around as Fumu gave her a strange look, humming a tune.

"Fate?" Fumu asked, stepping forward. "What do you mean by 'fate?'"

Yume's expression softened as she turned her back to Fumu.

"What's meant to be will always find a way," she whispered. "There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be..."

She grinned.

"That's the way it works in Yasahiro nation."

Fumu rolled her eyes.

"Don't you mean Yume nation?"

"Yume is my alias."

"A little girl is the alias of that of a god?"

"IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL."

"No it isn't."

Yume stuck out her tongue and closed her parasol, twirling it around until it was a blur, completely gone.

"That boy, Max-"

"Marx," corrected Fumu.

"Right. MARX. Marx has something amazingly huge coming."

Yume squinted as if thinking.

"And... whenever you look at Marx... or anyone like him... think... 'Some things are destined to be - it just takes us a couple of tries to get there.'"

She hesitated.

"Tell him that... after..."

Fumu leaned forward.

"After what?"

Yume nodded.

"You'll see. You'll know when to tell him. Trust me. It's part of FATE~!"

She dramatically raised her arms at the word 'fate', and looked at her closed parasol imploringly.

"Fumu, what do you think will happen if I escape?"

"I'll get to see you in your god form. Your MALE form, more importantly." Fumu put her hand on her chin. "And you'd get your revenge, I guess. Who trapped you?"

Yume sniffed with distaste and looked at her shoes.

"Don't say 'trapped.' It makes me feel weak."

She hoisted her parasol over her back as she began to fade, and Fumu began to wake up.

"You'll see. Like I said, it's a part of fate. And remember, Fumu, once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

And then Yume vanished all together.


	26. Chapter 26

"Why do they call it Halfmoon? Does it have half a moon?"

"No. In fact, they call it 'Halfmoon' because it is cut in half."

"Oh?"

Fumu had been growing fond of Marx's education, questioning him about anything at anytime, yet she never caught him by surprise.

What did it mean to be appalling?

Horrifying.

What was Kirby?

A less than 200 hundred year old puffball, which is literally a baby.

The square root of 49?

7.

Even questions she didn't know herself she asked, hoping to know the answer. Mostly about Nova, for instance how it granted wishes, when and how it was created, etc.

She even asked how universes worked, and she got quite an interesting answer.

There was a universe with not that much life in it. Their universe was called the 'Nintendo' universe, which consisted of planets that belonged to the Mario solar system, the Sonic solar system, etc.

Other universes were split into categories.

What belonged in a certain spectrum of genre was placed in one universe, while another genre was placed in another.

The only universe that wasn't allowed to visit other universes was the empty one, which was inhabited by humans.

It was basically impossible to visit others, which made them quite isolated. There were only two planets having life, Earth and what people called the Goldilocks planet.

Other universes included a planet like Earth, with human inhabitants, though they were used to the practices of the extraterrestrials in their universes.

"That's so interesting," said Fumu, gaping. "I feel bad for them, though."

"Oh, but they DO get involved in how our universe works," hummed Marx, balancing on his feet. "They get flasks of our everyday lives."

Fumu blinked and looked at the sky cautiously, which caused the jester to burst out laughing.

"They aren't watching us right now!" he howled.

"Then what do they do?"

Marx smiled.

"It's quite interesting indeed, but I'll let you find out when you're for added suspense."

"But I'll never-"

"Hey, if I found out, YOU can find out, too."

Fumu sighed.

"Where would I find information like THAT? Not in some normal book, THAT'S for sure."

But Marx didn't answer, a smile growing on his face. He looked around at his half-frozen surroundings.

"Halfmoon isn't ALWAYS cut in half. In some places, it can reform back into a whole. Right now it's a whole, and it'll take a LONG time to weather down back into a half planet."

Fumu looked intently at the ground.

"Marx," she murmured. "Tell me about Nightmare."

Marx blinked, then looked up at the sky.

"What is there to tell? He is a manifestation of nightmares, knowing only how to bring fear. He can also read minds which also makes it very difficult to defeat him, even WITH the Star Rod."

Fumu looked at Marx again, eyes wide.

"But... Kirby EASILY defeated him after getting the Star Rod. It was unexpected, though."

Marx glanced at Kirby, who was a few paces ahead of them, almost nervously.

"Kirby is a BABY WARRIOR. Babies don't think. They FEEL. They REMEMBER. And because of his warrior nature, he FIGHTS. You say you brought out the Warp Star out without thinking. If he read your mind KNOWING you had the Warp Star, he would blast you to oblivion."

Fumu gulped, hugging herself.

"But what about his words after his defeat? I heard it, but I'm not sure Kirby heard it. He said he would be back. He said no matter what, he was basically dreams, and he back. And he would hunt down Kirby, for sure."

Marx was silent for a few moments.

"The Star Rod has a bit of a secret to it," he murmured. "Even I'M not sure what it is, but... it's there. I know you'll find out soon..."

He glanced at Kirby again.

"It's quite fond of you. Tells me all about you."

Fumu lifted an eyebrow.

"Kirby?"

But Marx shook his head.

"Like I said, you'll find out. But I think you already know."

Fumu was going to say something more, but was interrupted by Dedede, who stopped abruptly.

"There it is, zoi!" he thundered. "Six more to go!"

Fumu could hear Escargon trying to correct him and trying to dodge his mallet as well, then turned to face Marx, about to question his origin.

But he was gone, squealing jokes from next to Kirby, watching him laugh.

He looks, Fumu thought, almost sad.


	27. Chapter 27

"Vladimir."

The Dark Matter Knight's eye widened as he turned to face the dark matter blob.

Gooey still had a smile on his face, but his eyebrows were arched upward as if he were worried.

"Traitor," Vladimir spat in his venomous voice. "What the hell do you want?"

"You were here first, so I might as well ask the same. What is papa's right hand man doing here?"

Vladimir eyed the blob. His eyes were cold- just like his father's. They weren't cold ever before. But Gooey had hated the Dark Matter tribe more and more over the years.

He wasn't that powerful, but strong enough to hurl him against the wall, knock him out, and go in for the kill.

But Gooey wasn't like that.

He had plopped down, his eyes never leaving the Dark Matter.

"Hmm?"

Vladimir looked up at the throne room's screen, which had gone blank.

"Watching Marx. He fulfills his evil duties, unlike you."

Gooey snickered for a minute, which led to an awkward silence, until his words sunk in.

"Marx isn't evil!" Gooey jumped up. "He's Kirby's friend! He wouldn't hurt him!"

He paused. "I think."

Vladimir sighed, reaching for his sword.

"You're lucky I don't blast you and your sisters to shreds. Your father wouldn't mind."

The reaction wasn't what he expected. Gooey appeared in front of him, knocking the sword out of his tendril-like hands.

He looked at the sword poisonously, then stared at him, eyes full of hate.

"I swear," he hissed. "If you or your stupid dark matter clan hurts Blob or me anymore..."

He leaned closer.

"I'LL KILL YOU."

He turned around, grabbing the sword with his tongue and using it to smash the screen.

It broke in one hit, and he trudged out of the room leaving Vladimir alone.

The Dark Matter Knight stared at the sword lodged into the screen, not the least bit intimidated.

Behind him, a large, eye-like window appeared, and the strange woman, her glasses glimmering, flew through.

She looked awkward for a moment, flustering over her glasses. But then her old nature surfaced, her face emotionless, the only movement being from her left eyebrow, which twitched.

"What was HE doing here? I thought he would have died by now."

She seemed oddly amused by the idea, but the only amusement showing on her face was her expression changing from steel to rock.

Vladimir looked towards the direction the blob went.

"He would harm you, Master," he murmured softly. "His mental state is dangerous."

"You mean him being an idiot? I don't mind traitors making fools out of themselves. Besides, Vladimir, I am unkillable. I cannot be killed, but I CAN kill."

She chuckled joylessly. She loved saying it out loud, as if to reassure herself. Especially around Gooey and Blob.

Vladimir had known this for a long time.

He watched as she raised her hand, and the sword withdrew itself from the impaled screen, floating back towards him.

He accepted it and bowed.

"Thank you, Master."

The woman nodded and sighed, pain etched across her face. Her left eye still wasn't visible.

Vladimir remembered the pain of carried and bowed his head.

"I apologize for disrupting you in such a difficult time."

The woman sighed again.

"Vladimir, don't make me feel guilt. It's one of the things I CAN feel, and regret doing so."

"You regret...feeling guilty...?" He braced himself, but the woman didn't hurl curses and angry statements that she had bottled up at him.

She gave yet another sigh of grief, wincing, holding her head in her hands again.

Her left eye briefly was revealed from behind the hair and glasses, and Vladimir swallowed his own grief down.

There was no eye there. It had been torn out by Kirby's own love.

**Author's Note: This was a bit of an extra chapter, showing Gooey's rage and MANY spoilers (sorry ^^') Hope you enjoyed it!**


	28. Chapter 28

"THAT'S it?! You were JOKING when you said there were two more?!"

Bun looked at the jester awestruck when he nodded.

"Yup, yup!" he giggled. "Kirby's going to Nova!"

Fumu sighed.

"Nova~ And to think I was nervous at first..."

Bun stomped his foot as Dedede, Escargon, and the knights emerged from the tent.

"But how come sis can go and I can't ?! It's no fair!"

Dedede nodded, snarling.

"You think we LIKE to be left behind, zoi?!" he yelled. "We're coming, too!"

"NO." Fumu stepped forward and gesture to the ship, which was about less than one mile away.

"YOU have to go back to Popstar. YOU have to prove the sun and moon wrong. Bun, you go back because you're to young."

Dedede and Bun both threw up their arms in exasperation.

"Of course!" they yelled simultaneously.

Marx was looking at Kirby with brooding eyes.

He seemed to be thinking, or, in better terms, arguing with himself in his thoughts. One side, the one he didn't fully agree on, must've won, because he looked depressed after a while.

Kirby walked up to him.

"Mar-poyo OK?"

In their adventure, Marx had given him a few lessons, so he didn't have to say 'poyo' after everything.

So far he nailed down 'OK,' 'why,' and a few names, but not Marx's.

Marx nodded absentmindedly.

"Yes, of course Kirby."

He went for his best smile, but it was dim on the dark planet.

Kirby, however, accepted it, and ran towards Computer Virus, who he had defeated earlier, and said something to the screen.

He got a smiley face in return. He squealed and jumped around, clapping his arm stumps.

"You'd better be enjoying the child now."

Marx turned around to come face-to-face with Meta Knight, whose eyes glimmered gray.

Marx sat down.

"Great. Now you just have to make it worse."

"Why do it in the first place if you've grown so close?"

The question caught Marx by surprise.

"I... can't do that."

"You have freewill, do you not?"

"And that freewill decides that I will get my revenge on those who have mocked me, turning them into my slaves, and making those who would make fun of me suffer eternally. Is it asking too much?"

"Yes, when you back stab your friend to take revenge, when all he ever showed you was mercy and kindness."

"... he never showed HIM mercy."

Meta Knight stared at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Meta Knight stared at him a bit longer, then nodded.

"I'm coming with you, but for my own reasons. So when you made your decision, I will not be there."

Meta Knight thought the child looked a bit relieved, as if he thought he could at least have a small chance.

He nodded as well.

"I'll miss you. Maybe I'll make you a vassal or something."

He scrunched his eyebrows, staring at Kirby again, his expression soft.

"Good bye, Knight. Maybe I'll see you soon, yup yup."

He didn't sound enthusiastic, like he usually did, and Meta Knight's eyes didn't leave him until after he left.

Then he stiffened.

A cold aura had fallen upon all of them. They seemed more quiet- even Dedede. And Meta Knight couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched.


	29. Chapter 29

"Vladimir."

The Dark Matter Knight's eye widened as he turned to face the dark matter blob.

Gooey still had a smile on his face, but his eyebrows were arched upward as if he were worried.

"Traitor," Vladimir spat in his venomous voice. "What the hell do you want?"

"You were here first, so I might as well ask the same. What is papa's right hand man doing here?"

Vladimir eyed the blob. His eyes were cold- just like his father's. They weren't cold ever before. But Gooey had hated the Dark Matter tribe more and more over the years.

He wasn't that powerful, but strong enough to hurl him against the wall, knock him out, and go in for the kill.

But Gooey wasn't like that.

He had plopped down, his eyes never leaving the Dark Matter.

"Hmm?"

Vladimir looked up at the throne room's screen, which had gone blank.

"Watching Marx. He fulfills his evil duties, unlike you."

Gooey snickered for a minute, which led to an awkward silence, until his words sunk in.

"Marx isn't evil!" Gooey jumped up. "He's Kirby's friend! He wouldn't hurt him!"

He paused. "I think."

Vladimir sighed, reaching for his sword.

"You're lucky I don't blast you and your sisters to shreds. Your father wouldn't mind."

The reaction wasn't what he expected. Gooey appeared in front of him, knocking the sword out of his tendril-like hands.

He looked at the sword poisonously, then stared at him, eyes full of hate.

"I swear," he hissed. "If you or your stupid dark matter clan hurts Blob or me anymore..."

He leaned closer.

"I'LL KILL YOU."

He turned around, grabbing the sword with his tongue and using it to smash the screen.

It broke in one hit, and he trudged out of the room leaving Vladimir alone.

The Dark Matter Knight stared at the sword lodged into the screen, not the least bit intimidated.

Behind him, a large, eye-like window appeared, and the strange woman, her glasses glimmering, flew through.

She looked awkward for a moment, flustering over her glasses. But then her old nature surfaced, her face emotionless, the only movement being from her left eyebrow, which twitched.

"What was HE doing here? I thought he would have died by now."

She seemed oddly amused by the idea, but the only amusement showing on her face was her expression changing from steel to rock.

Vladimir looked towards the direction the blob went.

"He would harm you, Master," he murmured softly. "His mental state is dangerous."

"You mean him being an idiot? I don't mind traitors making fools out of themselves. Besides, Vladimir, I am unkillable. I cannot be killed, but I CAN kill."

She chuckled joylessly. She loved saying it out loud, as if to reassure herself. Especially around Gooey and Blob.

Vladimir had known this for a long time.

He watched as she raised her hand, and the sword withdrew itself from the impaled screen, floating back towards him.

He accepted it and bowed.

"Thank you, Master."

The woman nodded and sighed, pain etched across her face. Her left eye still wasn't visible.

Vladimir remembered the pain of carried and bowed his head.

"I apologize for disrupting you in such a difficult time."

The woman sighed again.

"Vladimir, don't make me feel guilt. It's one of the things I CAN feel, and regret doing so."

"You regret...feeling guilty...?" He braced himself, but the woman didn't hurl curses and angry statements that she had bottled up at him.

She gave yet another sigh of grief, wincing, holding her head in her hands again.

Her left eye briefly was revealed from behind the hair and glasses, and Vladimir swallowed his own grief down.

There was no eye there. It had been torn out by Kirby's own love.

**Author's Note: This was a bit of an extra chapter, showing Gooey's rage and MANY spoilers (sorry ^^') Hope you enjoyed it!**


	30. Chapter 30

Fumu had expected that they would be built a ship.

She DIDN'T expect to be half-dragged through space on a warp star, with Kirby steering.

He drove like a MANIAC, as she remembered calling him when they collided with a column of space rocks. They weren't hurt, but the fact that they ended up there in the first place told them both EVERYTHING.

The way wasn't long.

It was horrifying, especially when Kirby lurched to the left or right whenever trying to avoid space rubble.

He hadn't had much practice being a small puffball raised in a small kingdom with little to no trouble, but it was like driving Dedede's 'car-poy.'

After a few more minutes, Kirby caused the warp star to screech to a halt, almost knocking Fumu off.

He raised his arm stubs, and moved his lips as if chanting. Seven stars surrounded and swirled around him until they turned into a blur, making Fumu dizzy.

And then, they vanished all together. When Fumu was about to question aloud what happened, IT came.

Nova, in all it's glory, flew in front of Kirby, it's eyes directed at him.

It was a mix of projectiles and astronomical objects placed together at random, but Fumu thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen.

"READY," boomed his voice as he squinted. "I WILL GIVE YOU ONE WISH."

Fumu was so lost in it's complexity, Kirby had to poke her just to wake her up from her trance.

She blinked before remembering what she had to do.

"W-well..." she stuttered, shivering. "O-our sun and moon are fighting... W-we..."

She gazed into his eyes.

He was so knowing, but he had a glint of fear in his gaze that made her voice linger.

Why was he scared?

He could blast his enemies into dust if he wanted to.

'No,' said a voice in her head. 'His MASTER'S' enemies.'

She was about to question this until she saw Nova getting even more uncomfortable.

She inhaled slowly.

"W-we wish for th-this to-"

Fumu knew for one beautiful moment that she was going to finish and pretend this never happened.

That hope was lost when a small, soft, but powerful force knocked them back at 160 miles per hour.

Kirby yelped, partly intercepting the attack, but it was too powerful for him. It knocked him out.

Fumu turned around just in time to see a sight that horrified her beyond compare.

It was Marx.

The boy had a twisted smile and a dark look on his face. His features were twisted, as if the cute jester never existed.

He giggled, hysterical laughter that had nothing to do with happiness.

"I have a wish, Galactic Nova," he said.

Nova closed his eyes as if he expected nothing less.

"SPEAK."

Marx looked up, and Fumu thought he almost looked needy... or SCARED.

Then he said something that made her stop cold.

"Well, I want to control Popstar!"

From next to her, Kirby inhaled sharply.

Nova looked at the star's destination with no hesitation.

"OK. 3... 2...1... BLAST OFF!"

His engine could be heard roaring for a minute, and he flew past, aiming for Popstar.

Fumu stared wide-eyed, face pale.

"KIRBY!" she shrilled, shaking the puff.

He breathed softly to let her know he was awake, but a tear trickled down his cheek.

He had heard everything.

Fumu stared at Marx, who stared at them with empty eyes.

His laughter, so happy before, appeared so joyless now.

He was looking at both of them but seemed to address only Kirby.

"I got the sun and moon to fight!" he shrieked, as if he wanted someone to be proud of him. "I got you to go into space... it was all a part of my plan!"

He suddenly changed, right before their horrified eyes, Kirby being more grief-stricken than Fumu.

He doubled in size, eyes bulging, tongue hanging out, his wings turning bat-like and bejeweled like, ironically, a rainbow.

His fangs grew, and his purple eyes changed into a red eye and a blue eye, as if the purple had been ripped apart, like his sanity.

In three seconds, he looked like a demonic spawn from Hell.

Kirby's eyes watered even more.

"Pre-ti wing-poyo," he whispered.

Fumu gaped.

"You think his wings are...?" she began, then stopped.

Kirby was imagining what it would have been like if he had shown his wings before.

Then his terror caught up to him.

He attempted to struggle out of her grip, sobbing and screaming.

"NO-POYO NO NO! MAR-POYO! MAR-POYO!"

Marx chuckled emotionlessly again, staring back at Nova, as if he were trying not to look at Kirby.

"You thought I was your FRIEND, Kirby? Honestly, I betrayed my own Master. Do you know who he was Kirby? Hmm?"

When Kirby didn't answer, because he was sobbing on Fumu's arm, he answered himself.

"Does the word 'eye' ring a bell?"

He giggled again when Kirby's eyes widened with horror.

"No-poyo..." he whispered.

Fumu turned him to face her, about to ask what was wrong, but he roughly pushed her away.

"NO-POYO!" he repeated furiously, turning back to Marx, who was smiling from ear to ear.

His teeth were as sharp as razors.

"Oh come on. I hardly knew you. 25 days? More? Less? I'm not even sure. Why would YOU care about ME?"

"FRIENDS-POYO!" Kirby screamed back. He seemed more in anguish than anger.

"That's what they always say," he said bitterly. "Until they throw you in the street, SPIT on you like you're a monster, and then go on their damn merry way. And what are YOU supposed to do? **DEAL WITH IT and PUT ON A DAMN SMILE!**"

He seemed to be very close to ripping them to pieces, but something was making him hesitate. But he was shrieking his head off.

** "HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'LL SHOW YOU! I'LL SHOW YOU ALL! YOU SHOULD'VE NEVER HURT ME, NOPE NOPE! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL PUT YOU IN PAIN, JUST LIKE YOU DID TO ME! HEHEHEHEEHEE HAHAHAHAHAHA!"**

He seemed to huff for a minute, relaxing, then turned to them- no, Kirby- and smiled.

"Now I can cause all the mischief I want!" he giggled, leaning towards them. "Haha! See you later!"

In one swift motion, he flew away, his insane, monotone laughter echoing throughout the universe.

Fumu and Kirby floated around in silence for a moment.

Finally, Fumu opened her mouth to speak, but Kirby put his arm in front of her mouth.

"No-poyo..." he murmured, shaking his head. "You-hurt poyo too. No-poyo."

Fumu was about to question this, but decided against it.

Kirby nodded, as if reading her mind, and pushed her away, gently this time.

He floated in the air for a few moments, eyes closed, as if deciding to do something or not.

He must've wanted to do it, because the seven star rods again circled around him, this time creating some sort of machine used for travel.

He made a silent gesture, and a force picked Fumu up and blasted her to Popstar.

The last thing she saw was Kirby's tears drying, and turning into pure fury.


	31. Chapter 31

Marx looked at the streak in the sky, which drew closer to Nova every second.

The Sun and Moon, who had momentarily stopped their clashing, had turned to Nova, shocked, and had blown it back, but the gesture was useless.

Nova was too close to Popstar.

Marx chuckled when he remembered how he had gotten them to fight.

He had searched long and hard for the Sun, and when he had finally found him, he wasn't left unsatisfied.

The Sun was like a big ball of light, his eyes sparking with power. He seemed a bit cocky, but wise.

Marx had bowed in his presence, balancing perfectly as always on his beach ball.

'Sun-kun,' he had whispered, teary-eyed. 'Th-The Moon is giving me n-nightmares. I don't know how, and I d-don't know if he knows himself. But h-he... he just IS.'

He had sniffed and had told the Sun about his past, which he ironically did have nightmares about, leaving out any lethal or happy parts, which wasn't much.

The Sun and Moon had argued for a while, until the Moon, a white, shining crescent with intelligent eyes, had promised to see to the problem. When it had finally seemed resolved, he, smiling, had dropped the bombshell on them.

'I have one question before you help me. You both seem really nice, but which one of you is the strongest? The wisest? Who makes the decisions?'

It had started with simple bragging, the Sun bragging about his amazing light and the Moon murmuring true compliments about his intellect, but, after a couple of insults had been thrown, the Moon had punched the Sun.

He, in turn, sent a shockwave of heat towards the Moon, and after they had completely started fighting, he had left, in search of Kirby.

"It doesn't take a genius to outsmart someone," he murmured, staring at the Sun and Moon straining under Nova's pressure. "It just takes a good plan and an idiotic person."

He had heard that from one of his only friends millions of times when he visited, played with him, taught him magic...

'When I rule Popstar,' he inwardly promised. 'I'm giving you 1/4 of it.'

'What about Grill?' said another voice in his head.

He smiled.

'SHE'S my right hand. Not that I need one, but she's amazing. Besides, she could humor me. I could get used to having someone make ME laugh, for once.'

A pause.

'Kirby?'

Marx winced at the name.

'Shut up. Or would you like me to kill you, too?'

The voice silenced itself.

But a small nagging voice found it's way through his skull.

Schadenfreude.

He giggled his old, cute giggle, remembering the word.

He remembered coming across it when he was in a deep study of languages that were spoken in the humanoid universe, when he came across 'German.'

The word was spoken in America as well as Europe, and it literally meant 'harm-joy.'

'Schadenfreude' meant to like the suffering of others. Marx often called his old Master that, knowing the irony and annoyance of it.

It had caught on quickly, and soon one of his names was 'Schadenfreude,' along with 'Master.'

It literally showed how lethal he had been.

He stared down at Nova, and his eyes widened as he leaned forward.

The large clockwork machine had suddenly seemed to sulk, staring apologetically at the Sun and Moon.

It looked as if two of him were making choices: a mini him trying to stop himself, and a mini Marx, shrieking, "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!"

But as Marx looked on Nova seemed to be struggling with his own soul and heart, as if he was having lung problems.

Why had it stopped...?

...

Kirby stared at the silver mechanism around him.

It almost made him feel guilty he was destroying Nova.

But he felt his guilt diminished when he heard Nova hum, as if forgiving him, and as he remembered his rage at Marx.

He hardly knew him. That was true.

But Kirby had sensed some good and friendliness in him. Was that fake, too?

He heard voices whisper around him, scrapy, 'Jealousy is a strong motive. You don't know what a person is capable off- until a little, just a LITTLE jealousy is used. Then it all comes back to haunt you...'

Jealousy?

What did JEALOUSY have to do with anything?

He flew past the security with ease, swerving at times to keep him from hurling into walls or getting blasted by the lasers.

Who MADE this thing?

Kirby felt the urge to turn around and stick his tongue out at the traps, but he knew the bigger danger was ahead of him.

In a few swerves, he had reached a silver room, even more beautiful than before.

It's mechanism was stylized in a way that was WAY ahead of the technology in Pupupuland.

Wires surrounded him in chronological order- green, red, blue, etc, and they were held in place by large pieces of metal sticking out of the structure.

Out of instinct, Kirby pressed a blue button on the right of his shuttle, releasing a short laser that blasted the first red wire.

It blasted it, creating a hole deep in the metal, and the room suddenly whirred to life.

In the middle of the room, a large, robotic heart appeared, beating lightly. Kirby would've usually been intimidated by this, but his rage filtered curiosity and fear.

His hand stump smashed the blue button over and over again, dodging the wall and blasting the metals and wires; sometimes getting close to spiraling out of control.

Slowly, his anger was replaced by sadness, and he slowed the shuttle down, almost as if reassuring it that it was alright.

He it took a while to get the last three wires, since Nova had switched to the opposite side and was now making him go backwards, but his aim was perfect.

In less than a few minutes, he had caused a dent in every single multi-colored metal, only denting his own shuttle once.

Nova shuddered and lurched dangerously to the side, and a small metal piece fell from the roof, showing the outside. Kirby flew towards the crack, breaking out of Nova as the room behind him exploded. He hovered above Nova as he watched him back up from the Sun and Moon, who looked as worn out as he felt. Nova made a few wheezing noises and shuddered again, staring back up at Kirby, somehow both forgiving and accusing.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Kirby spun around quickly, eyes wide.

He saw Marx floating above him, eyes more scary than ever. But for a minute, he could see fear in his eyes.

"WHY!? WHY WHY WHY?! YOU DESTROYED IT! YOU-!"

He paused for a minute, staring back at the small puffball.

"You never made a wish did you?" he murmured, voice as thin as ice.

Terrified, Kirby shook his head.

Marx smiled as if his reaction and answer pleased him.

_ "Then make a wish, Kirby..."_ he whispered, looking at Nova with eyes showing no emotion.

He lunged at him, eyes wide.

_**"IT'LL BE YOUR LAST!"**_

**Author's Note: See what I did there? c: Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	32. Chapter 32

Kirby was so surprised by the attack, he only had a small chance to jump out of the shuttle before it exploded from the impact of Marx's overgrown body.

Marx shrieked something incomprehensible and lunged again, swiping with his wings, landed three blows on Kirby and sent him slamming into Nova.

Kirby yelped from the impact and ducked again, bracing himself for another blow, but Marx missed, causing a huge dent in Nova, who seemed to visibly wince for a moment, then continue to attempt to push towards Popstar, which he failed to do.

Marx scream-laughed and sent Kirby spiraling a few miles back and onto a sort of star covered road. It made Kirby a bit dizzy for a minute, with the flashing, speedy lights, but he got used to it, just in time to see Marx hover in front of him, smile wildly.

"THOUSAND ARROWS!" he screamed.

Millions of arrows suddenly formed behind him from what seemed like space dust, and glowed as if made from fire. It took a while for Kirby to comprehend what it was, but when he did, it saved him. He inhaled deeply and jumped out of the arrow's way as they soared past at the speed of light, almost annihilating him. Marx screamed with frustration when the arrows flew into deeper space, missing the puff, and opened his mouth wide, spewing a large laser at him. Kirby got blown away and landed 50 yards away from his previous location, burnt all over.

Marx hung his tongue out as if taunting him, then spat out a block of cold ice. Agonizingly, Kirby got up and forced himself to jump out of the way to keep from freezing. Marx clicked his tongue in annoyance, then sighed.

"You don't give up, you know?" he said, shaking his head.

He released his arrows again, with one catching onto Kirby's foot and causing a deep scar, and the others missing completely.

Kirby winced and got ready to inhale, as Marx sent sharp hooked swords spiraling in his direction. He inhaled two of them and swallowed them down, leaping into the air and transforming into cutter Kirby.

Marx squinted, unimpressed.

"You REALLY get on my nerves..." he murmured, again lunging at the puff.

Instinctively, Kirby pulled the cutter from his hat and lifted it up in a lazy attempt to prevent getting blown away again, which partially worked.

The blow sent him flying backwards a bit, but it also made a scar on Marx's right wing.

He howled with pain and landed on the ground, a few feet away from Kirby, gasping for breath. His wound was dripping with a red substance that made Kirby's stomach lurch. BLOOD.

Kirby flinched and put his boomerang back into his cap. He couldn't do this. Not to his friend. NEVER.

He turned away from the jester, who was now staring up at the puff, almost in defiance.

"IS THAT ALL YOU CAN DO?! HURT ME SOME MORE! COME ON! I DARE YOU!"

Kirby still remained silent, then turned away from his former friend.

NO. He couldn't do it.

But just when Kirby thought it was over, the jester giggled hysterically.

"You think I'll let you go?" he whispered, almost offended. He suddenly appeared in front of Kirby, eyes wide, as he leaned towards him.

"You're not even angry," he said sadly, sniffing with distaste. "He said I should get you angry. Kill you. Make your soul perish. Make you suffer. Doesn't that make you mad? Someone wants to hurt you. Why are you turning away from the fight?"

Kirby stared at the jester with a look of such remorse, the air itself seemed to thicken with guilt. He sighed, then lowered his gaze.

"No-poyo..."

Marx frowned for the first time he had ever transformed.

"Excuse me?"

Kirby shook his head, his eyes brimming with tears. He seemed to be trying to hold himself together, but wasn't doing a good job at it.

"Mar-poyo...no-poyo..."

Marx seemed to pause for a while, an unreadable expression shadowing his face. For a moment, he looked like the old, funny, cute, harmless Marx displaying one of his signature mischievous grins after he pranks Dedede and Escargon for the millionth time. But it was soon gone as he flashed a look of hatred and anger so dark, it pierced right through the spacious atmosphere.

"You're trying to make me hesitate," hissed Marx, his voice deep and distorted. "You're trying to make me stop, and then kill me while my guard is down."

Kirby viciously shook his head, his voice too choked to make distinct words. Marx's eyes narrowed as he jumped back, floating in the air again.

"This is what I came for," said Marx, not meeting his gaze, as arrows swirled behind him, aiming at the puffball. "Not to make friends, not to be mocked again, but to rule Popstar. To show everyone that I and I alone destroyed the legendary Kirby. Even that hideous and bloody EYE-" he watched Kirby cringe with a smirk- "and soon maybe even challenge him. I already have enough friends. I don't need anymore."

"Lie-poyo!" responded Kirby, his voice a squeaky hiss. Marx howled with laughter, waving his wings around again and slicing them at him, missing with every blow. Suddenly, small, seed-like things fell from the sky from behind Marx, and he vanished in a flash.

Kirby blankly looked around, bewildered and confused, until plants, almost like spikes, punctured through the ground, barely missing him. He squealed as he dodged three more plants as they curved around, as if they had a mind of their own, attempting to ram into him.

"HOLD STILL, DAMN IT!" Marx's voice boomed around him. The jester burst out of the ground, knocking Kirby away violently. Kirby got up at once, eyes wide with shock. Was he actually going to...?

But as soon as that thought formed in his head, Marx shrieked, his wounded wing dragging him down. For another moment, his wings melted into what seemed like paint, and the jester looked up, face wet with tears.

"Why would you DO that?" he demanded, his voice choked. "It HURTS! I should've KNOWN you were like the ones from the Unseen World! They hurt me and laughed at me and made me cry! They told me I was a monster! They... they..."

He faltered when he saw Kirby's expression soften. He'd never seen a look like that, except on the girl that always appeared in his dreams, May. It looked like she was always trying to help him, reach him, but couldn't free him from his chains. It always made him wonder if someone out there actually cared about him... but...

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Kirby jumped back as Marx's wings reformed, but as he readied himself for another attack, the jester used his wings to hold his head, as if he were struggling with another person.

"STOP IT!" he continued, limping towards him. "Y-YOU'RE SO NICE! BUT... BUT THEN YOU'LL LEAVE ME! AND THEY'LL HURT ME AGAIN! YOU'LL LEAVE JUST ME LIKE MOTHER DID!"

His image seemed to falter, and he dropped his wings to the ground, an odd expression on his face.

"That's not true," he said with a peculiarly soothing voice as he rocked back and forth on his feet. "We're playing a game. I have to find her so we'll all be happy again, together. She's just hiding. Playing a game."

"Sad-poyo...?" whispered Kirby, edging towards the jester and reaching out to stroke his head. Instead of complying, Marx stepped back a bit, but smiled at the puffball.

"That's right," he agreed in a monotone voice, as if he hadn't heard him. "We'll be happy together, Kirby. Don't you see? This is what I always wanted. POWER. HAPPINESS. I'm happy right now, Kirby. Don't you want that?"

Kirby froze, watching him. It WAS what he wanted, but at the same time... it wasn't. Marx went on, eyes still calm, compared to before.

"Besides, I'd be much better than that... DEDEDE. Ugh, he smells just like my old Master, except without the anguish."

Kirby gave Marx a sideways glance, and the jester laughed his old laugh. Did it always sound like music? Like wedding bells? Great, now he was hungry for wedding cake.

"I don't smell people, like I told you. I sense what they feel, and that feeling is shown through smell. You smell like the best sweets in the world combined with bananas and strawberries. Happiness. It's the closest I've ever been to it. PLEASE let me do this, Kirby. I can't-"

"Confu-poyo?" Kirby asked blankly, trying so hard to hide his trembling voice.

"That's what they said," the jester agreed as his face darkened. "I'm confused. They said I had... imagination. 'Oh, you poor thing,'" he mocked. "'You're so confused.'" He laughed bitterly, and suddenly, Kirby wasn't so hungry anymore.

Then he dared himself to do something blood-freezing.

"Scared-poyo?" he whispered.

** "SCARED!?"** Marx suddenly turned back into the demon he was before. _**"I'VE BEEN SCARED MY WHOLE LIFE! MY WHOLE STUPID, FREAKING LIFE! I'M A FREAK! A MONSTER! A DEMON BEAST! AN ARMLESS LITTLE DEMON BEAST FREAK!"**_

With each personal insult, the ground around him exploded, sending spiked plants barreling towards Kirby. His voice was pure hate, excluding any emotion.

"NO-POYO!" Kirby yelled with dismay and horror, trying to get the jester's attention, but his friend was gone. He was a full-blown demon beast, filled with nothing but fury and insanity.

And Kirby knew what he had to do. He cut down the spiked plants in one move, and ran towards his former friend, boomerang drawn. He rammed into the jester, slicing his other wing. He winced when he heard the jester shriek, this time being blown back with full force.

Right into Nova.

Kirby watched with growing terror as Marx crashed headfirst into the machine, making Nova explode from the impact. And the last thing space heard before the explosion was Kirby's scream.


	33. Chapter 33

'Where am I?'

Marx stared wide-eyed around at his surroundings. The area was filled with light, unlike before, and Nova's priceless remains floated around him like space crystals. Marx was about to sigh in hopelessness and was about to look around for Kirby to see what the puff was doing (possibly laughing, Marx thought in disgust), but a deep pain etched around his wings... Wait... Where were his wings?!

He looked around frantically, but the only thing left from his wings were a few cracked multicolored crystals that drifted around him and clunked against Nova's pieces. Marx's lips formed a snarl.

"DAMMIT!" he roared, helplessly drifting through space. But then he heard something. He closed his mouth, straining his ears to hear the sound better. It was a voice... a soft, feminine voice. No, it wasn't soft, it was distant, and demented.

"Marx!" it called softly. Marx looked around. It couldn't be Kirby. He would be disintegrated immediately, because he never made a wish. Ha... never made a wish. Because of him.

"There."

Marx stiffened as he remembered the voice. HER.

The distorted voice only made him dislike the situation even more. He shivered, and turned to the one-eyed Queen. The other eye was covered by the same shine that reflected off her glasses

"Hey, hey, hey, eyeball face," he said with annoyance, rolling his own eyes. The Queen hardly showed any emotion at the insult, hoisting an oddly shaped object over her shoulder. When Marx recognized it, his eyes flew open with shock.

It was Ai.

The girl squirming around, agitated, hissing at anything that seemed odd. She seemed to have lost her wits, looking around as if she were anxious to get her hands on something.

"Ai wants a puppet," said the Queen flatly. When Marx gave her a look of confusion, the Queen continued. "Ai is a strange creature. Do you know who created her?"

"You?" Marx seethed. He was trying really hard to not rip out the Queen's other eye. But the Queen shook her head, to his surprise. "Then who?"

"Chaos," the Queen answered, petting the girl's head. Marx froze, then laughed, but his laughter edged with strange hysteria.

"Ai? Chaos? Honestly, it's like saying all those spirits I saw were created by the creepy freak."

This statement received a hiss from Ai, as if it offended her. The Queen gave an emotionless chuckle, then leaned forward.

"Your wings were ripped off of you. Did your plan not go as expected? It is not surprising if it didn't, of course, so don't feel too bad."

"Shut up, you had your eye ripped out."

The Queen stared at him with utter revulsion, but her chin was lifted high, almost indignant. She tossed Ai in front of Marx, and the little girl remained silent, eyes wide with a smile so huge, it hardly fit on her face. Her tongue hung out of her mouth. The Queen approached Marx, and the jester puffed up his chest in an act that he hoped looked like defiance, not fear.

"Ai is your insanity, Marx," she said in a monotone voice. Marx was about to say something, but the Queen lifted her hand to interrupt him. "Shut up and listen. She is YOUR spirit Marx. And what a restless spirit indeed."

"Why would my spirit be outside my body?" asked Marx, then scrunched up his face in disgust. "And be a GIRL?"

"It is what HE has chosen," said the woman, nodding. "Each of you forgotten, pathetic, and tattered evil-doers has a soul. It is the REASON you are evil."

"So, you have one?" asked Marx, leaning forward in interest. The Queen winced and held her eye, then shook her head.

"Of course not, you fool," she hissed, releasing her eye and readjusting her glasses. "I am pure negativity. Negativity is my spirit, as I am it's. The disgusting child you just fought- and if you mention his name, I will tear you apart right now- he is made from kindness. Hurting you, that's probably the most moving thing he has ever made himself do for the sake of others."

"Why would you tell me that?" said Marx, laughing. "I'll just apologize to Kirby, and we'll be friends forever! Then he'll kill you again and again and again until you give up!"

The Queen was suddenly so close to his face, he could feel anger radiating off of her.

"You just don't UNDERSTAND do you?" she said through gritted teeth. "You will DIE before you get the chance."

"If I'm not dead now, what do you think will actually kill me?" the jester scoffed, smirking. The Queen remained silent for a while, refusing to answer. Finally, she turned to Ai, who had begin to writhe on the floor.

"Ai," she hissed. The spirit stopped squirming, but remained silent. When Ai didn't answer, the Queen yanked the girl off the floor with an invisible force. "Listen to me: you will never leave your host's body. You will remain- and rule from within him. Make him suffer. Torment him forever. AND KILL KIRBY."

Ai stared blankly at the Queen, pursing her lips. Finally, her face brightened, and she nodded her head, as if she finally understood what the Queen was getting at. The Queen released the spirit, and she collapsed on the floor. She instantly got up and straightened, looking at Marx. She tilted her head, and finally, Marx realized who this spirit was with building terror: the Queen.

Not the one-eyes Queen. HIS Queen. His old tormentor. But... she was DEAD?

Ai smiled as if she knew he remembered her, and lunged at him. His vision darkened instantly, but he saw the Queen leave with a satisfied and emotionless smirk on her lips, and Nova's pieces drift towards him. He saw Kirby's eyes widen; first with happiness, then with pure terror. But he didn't care about that.

Ai's true identity was beginning to form into his mind. It was murky, but he saw it. A small memory of a woman smiling at a little boy, then hugging him. It was obvious. It was horrifying, but obvious.

Ai... his Queen... was his mother.

**Author's Note: You'll see I've improved a little bit from when I first started this thing. It's because I wrote these chapters a little later than the first ones, thus I have more experience. :3 Either way, hope ya enjoyed the chapter!**


	34. Chapter 34

Meta Knight remained silent as Nova reformed in front of him, his robotic face strained with stress and pain. He looked down at Meta Knight in silence and blinked, signaling him to speak.

"You are Nova, correct?" asked the Knight softly. Their was a short silence as Nova leaned forward in a nod, his gears groaning from damage. Meta Knight inwardly winced.

"My wish..." he began, then stopped himself. He had four siblings that had disappeared. Asking for one was unfair, but asking for all of them was foolish in all levels. Revenge was foolish, too, but watching Nova made him feel like he could do anything.

"I want to fight the strongest sword fighter in the galaxy!"

Meta Knight waited, then was confused as Nova's eyes suddenly swung open in shock, then squinted at him.

"GALACTA KNIGHT?" he asked in his old, booming voice.

"That's his name," confirmed Meta Knight softly.

"I SEALED THAT WARRIOR IN AN ICE PRISON," Nova said, disgusted. "IN MY OPINION, YOU SHOULD NOT WASTE SUCH A GENUINE WISH ON SOMEONE SO LOW."

"He killed my brother," Meta Knight spat bitterly. "I think my brother is worth genuine wishes."

Nova considered this for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"YOUR WISH," he murmured. He closed his eyes, almost in contemplation, as if beginning to regret to agree. Suddenly, a burst of light sparked next to him, and a crystal, bigger than Meta Knight himself, appeared. Meta Knight, despite himself, inhaled sharply. The warrior was located in the center of it, frozen, as if physically molded into the crystal. He had a strange magenta color which reminded the knight of Kirby, ironically. Two perfect angel wings sprouted from his back, lifted as if in mid-flight. Behind his mask, which had a pointed cross molded in it, his eyes were shut, as if he were in a really deep sleep.

Suddenly, before he knew it, the crystal holding the knight shattered. He seemed to twitch for a moment or two, then hesitantly opened his eyes, which were etched with red. His eyes suddenly widened with horror as he looked around frantically, as if something frightened him. But in hardly a few seconds, he had regained his posture and had turned to glare at Meta Knight.

"You," he said simply. Meta Knight's eyes turned red with silent fury, but quickly changed back. Galacta Knight, however, had seemed to sense his anger, and boisterously laughed a scratchy, evil laugh. He turned to Nova, a large smirk evident through his mask hole. "This knight wants a duel, I suppose?"

Nova didn't answer, and Galacta Knight turned his attention back to Meta Knight.

"Why did you free me?" he asked softly, which was strange for a knight with his personality. "Did you feel the urge to prove yourself? Are you too proud for your own good? You know you need to show some power-hungry need to let your wish come true. And Nova calls ME of all people putrid."

Nova squinted at the implied insult, but said nothing. He however nodded at Meta Knight, as if proving this statement true. Meta Knight didn't answer immediately, until after Galacta Knight unsheathed his lance, turning back to Nova expectantly. Nova gave an old, scratchy sigh.

"WHAT IS YOUR REASON?" Meta Knight sighed as well.

"Revenge," he murmured. When Galacta Knight raised an eyebrow, he continued. "You murdered my brother. I am just seeking revenge. That, and I would like to improve my skills. Fighting the strongest swordfighter in the universe will prove to be worth while in battles of difficulty."

He turned to Nova for approval, and the wise machine nodded. He was about to say something else, like words of encouragement, but Galacta Knight's strange, scratchy laugh interrupted him. The Knight floated toward him, twisting his lance in his hands.

"You mean the warrior that was possibly 20,000 more years older than you? Oh, yes, I remember him... Quite the puffball. Of course I would remember him..."

Galaxy's Knight leaned forward, and smirked.

"Yes... yessss... Perfect person... perfect rival... perfect warrior... But worst time. He got in the way, and at the worst battle yet...But I didn't kill him."

Meta Knight stared at the Knight. What?

"You're saying he isn't dead?" asked Meta Knight. Galaxy's Knight chuckled again. The Knight wished he would stop. It sounded like a dying eagle scratching it's claws against a chalkboard. But he stopped himself from cringing from the Knight.

"Well, is he?" he asked impatiently. Galaxy's Knight stopped laughing and a blank look crossed his face.

"Too strong for his own good... too strong... Deserved to die... But I changed him... You would've changed as well, Knight... The girl... she whispered in my ears to free her... She was so innocent... so young... but she wasn't normal... she kept yelling at herself... as if arguing... she almost killed herself once... I almost freed her... almost... but..."

Galacta lifted his hands in an innocent shrug.

"I just became better."

"What... are you saying?"

"Insanity consumed me, Sir Meta Knight. It was evil, corrupting my mind... How-can-you-not-understand?"

He chuckled again, turning to Nova, smiling brightly.

"Leave me and nii-nii alone, Nova. We need some quality time together."

It took a while for the words to sink in, but when they did, the Knight was not prepared for them. This Knight... who murdered so many...

"Sir! Look out!"

It was Blade, but Meta Knight didn't have a chance to look. He felt Galaxia knocked out of his hand, and a lance plunged straight in his direction.


	35. Chapter 35

Meta Knight barely had time to dodge the blow, but Blade had hurled his sword at Galacta Knight, creating a great short diversion for him to at least escape the attack alive. The Knight swiped his lance in the direction of the sword, deflecting it and allowing Meta Knight to retrieve his sword. Blade was completely visible now, with Sword at his side. When Galacta Knight was them, he gave an exasperated sigh.

"No fair," he murmured, hefting his lance to eye-level. "You knew you were too weak. Cheater."

"Sword! Blade!" he called, ignoring him. "Leave right now! This is my fight!"

"But, sir, you won't be able to-" began Blade desperately.

"NOW," repeated Meta Knight. He lifted Galaxia at the last second and blocked his attack. They must have heard the urgency in his voice, because they left immediately, with two quick 'sorry's' and plenty of hesitation, so much, Galacta almost threatened to attack them. After a while however, after Galacta had circled him thrice, they came back, much to his annoyance. In fact, he lifted his sword, and just when Meta Knight thought he would attack, formed a force field between them and the two knaves.

'He isn't my brother,' he reassured himself after glaring at the two, a little pride mixed with anger, more at Galacta than at them. 'Not him. He is corrupted. Just think about your goal.'

He activated his own wings and flew into the sky, slashing at the Knight at full speed. With a laugh, Galacta Knight deflected, sending them both flying back by a few inches. A shock-wave passed through them and Galacta flew at him, lance drawn back.

Meta Knight deactivated his wings and landed on his feet. As Galacta readjusted himself, he leapt into the air, lifting his sword into the air and creating a sword beam, sending it flying straight towards the Knight. The beam crashed into the Knight and smashed into the crystal wall of their battle field. A few seconds passed in silence as Meta Knight stared intently at the destroyed wall, studying it to see if Galacta Knight would pop out.

Just when he thought he was done, he heard five slashes behind him. He turned around in alarm, deflecting Galacta's lance. Wait. No. Five swords. They were small pink swords which had just dissolved into thin air. He stared at them at alarm.

"You mastered the sword beam?" came Galacta's voice. Meta Knight turned to it, and saw Galacta sitting on his lance, which he had stabbed into the wall. "Hmph. Impressive, but I killed men even when I hadn't intended to. Those swords? They weren't even a small cup measuring my power. I could activate millions and point them all at you."

To prove his point, Galacta Knight lifted his right hand and flicked it, as if turning down an offer. About a dozen swords like the other five appeared behind him, aimed at Meta Knight. He shot them all at once at him, and all Meta Knight could do was dodge. They landed where he had been, as he had stabbed his own sword in the wall, standing on it effortlessly. Galacta Knight leaned forward in interest.

"That's a very intriguing sword. Where did you get it?"

Meta Knight stared down from his visor, squinting.

"You know. You know every historical piece ever made, especially if was made to be a weapon."

"Galaxia," Galacta Knight hummed in agreement. "I don't know much about it, but it is a very powerful sword, made to show visions of both past and future. How it came in your possession surprises me."

Meta Knight leaped from Galaxia and gestured to it.

"Why not have it?"

This received loud exclamations of shock from both Blade and Sword which were indistinct because of the force field. Galacta was silent for a while.

"You would offer your sword to your opponent in a battle that might end your life? Are you insane?"

"I am pretty sure YOU are," Meta Knight retorted, almost angrily. "Now will you take the sword, or should I fight you to the death?"

"Hmph," Galacta said again, leaping from his lance. Taking it out of the wall, he flew over to Meta Knight and landed gracefully in front of him.

"Why would you give me Galaxia? To blind me with thoughts of the past or future? To remind me of my childhood? To bring thoughts to my mind so tempting they might be able to come true? You confuse me, Meta Knight, but let me make one thing clear: you will never bring your brother back. He is corrupted. Even if he does come back, he will never fully be your brother. A small part of his spirit will still find you as a rival. Let that go into your mind."

Meta Knight nodded, nonchalant. Galacta guffawed and stepped forward, receiving more shouts of dismay from the two knaves behind the forcefield. But as Galacta reached for the sword, something went wrong.

A current of electricity coursed through his body. At first, he only gritted his teeth and kept pulling at the sword, but it soon became so powerful, he was shrieking inhumanly. His lance landed on the floor with a loud clang as he tried to use both hands to pull the sword out. But he soon gave up complete hope and was flung back, left crumpled on the floor, twitching.

"What IS that?!" he finally shrieked in anger after a few moments, panting. Meta Knight walked up to the sword and pulled it out of the wall with ease, turning it in front of the awestruck Galacta Knight, as if taunting him.

"Galacta Knight, you will never be worthy enough to hold this sword. It will always taunt you from afar, and you will always try to earn it, but you will always fail. You will never be perfectly pure, and that is your curse. My own brother- and yes, I admit it to be true- but you have let your power to go to your head, along with the demon possessing you. You accepted it. You accepted insanity. You accepted hate and evil. You accepted to be loathed and feared by everyone."

"I DIDN'T CHOOSE IT!" he screamed, lunging for his lance. He grabbed it, slicing at Meta Knight with inhuman speed. Meta Knight, however, countered every blow effortlessly. Galacta Knight flew high into the air, producing at least five sword beams simultaneously.

The arena was suddenly bursting with fire columns, tornadoes, and sword beams, each i. which Meta Knight barely dodged. Small pink swords were sent in every direction.  
That, his own fear and anger, led to his defeat.

He grasped his lance in desperation and flew higher. He looked around in alarm as he realized Meta Knight had vanished then roared with outrage.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" he yelled. "COWARD!"

"You should be the coward," a voice whispered behind him.

Galacta Knight froze, hearing two sword slashes, then flew away, eyes full of fear.

But then, it happened.

His wings drifted away from him, his lance landing next to Blade and Sword, who had finally made it past the forcefield. Meta Knight physically flinched at the damage he had made and flew over to Galacta Knight, who was laughing weakly, ironically not screeching about the loss of his wings.

"Now I remember..." he muttered, turning agonizingly over to look at Meta Knight. "The girl... she said she would defeat Nightmare... She led me... away..." His eyes became foggy. "You were there... I almost killed you... When another spirit possessed me... Ha... you were so tiny... compared to now..."

"Galacta Knight," interrupted Meta Knight, uncomfortable. "You are my rival, but not the true enemy. I'm not letting you die."

Galacta almost pouted, then turned away.

"Let me die. No puff ever survived without wings anyway." He glanced at the remains of his wings, a few feathers, floating in the distance. "Besides, my wings were fabulous. You should have seen them in clothes form." He guffawed, then winced. "And you can only make one wish to Nova, and you wasted it on my freedom. And I'm going to die... Why would you waste it on me of all people, honestly? You could have used it to bring Yamikage back to the good side." He saw Meta Knight wince, then inhaled sharply. "Sorry."

"No," said Meta Knight stubbornly. "You were possessed and locked away because your power was too great. I never thought about that, I just thought of revenge, and coincidentally, you were my brother. You wanted revenge at the people who blamed you because your power was too great and wanted to prove them wrong- by defeating me. But now you are a different person. A man that was literally reborn. You are not fully my brother anymore. Just a bit. But you ARE my rival, and yet, I wouldn't mind having you as a friend. A really annoying friend."

"Hey!" Galacta Knight protested, then laughed weakly again. "Just like Falspar, huh? Remember when Arthur's helmet was-"

"I try not to remember that," said Meta Knight, shuddering. "I try very hard, and you will not ruin that."

Galacta Knight smiled, then turned his visor to look at Blade and Sword. "They're lucky to have you. You're not that horrible."

"That is possibly the nicest thing you've ever told me."

"Nah, this would be," said Galacta, turning his attention back to him. "Some advice: don't lose control like me. One day, some kind of crazy evil force will grab a hold of you, too, and will try anything to bend you to work in their, or it's, will. NEVER succumb to them. Never."

"What can I do?" asked Meta Knight asked.

"Remember the good things in life," the other knight replied bluntly. "'Cause if you never remember them, they fade away to nothing, and they'll be lost for ever. And then... SHE'LL get you."

Meta Knight was about to say something, like thank you, but was interrupted by a loud whirl, and the yelps from his knaves. Before he knew it, the two were floating next to him, and he was once again in front of Nova. The wise machine squinted at the four of them, then sighed a weak sigh.

"WELL, THAT ENDED UNEXPECTEDLY," he said.

"Ooh, you mean you were betting on me?" said Galacta, chortling.

Nova was silent, then stared at Meta Knight, his eyes seeming to burn through him.

"YOU MAY CLAIM GALACTA KNIGHT'S WISH AS YOUR OWN. HOWEVER, YOUR KNAVES CANNOT SUPPORT YOU MAKE YOUR WISH."

"Why can't we do anything?" protested Blade, but was quieted by a silent stare from Sword.

"I can claim Galacta Knight's wish?" Meta Knight asked. Nova rumbled in agreement, then stared at him expectantly. Meta Knight's eyes briefly glowed green as he stared down at Galacta Knight, hesitating. He could use his wish to permanently destroy Nightmare. He could use it to get another one of his siblings back. But watching Galacta Knight, he could see why Arthur had regretted to tell him anything. "I... wish... Galacta Knight's wings were back, and we were transported back to Popstar."

He winced when he heard the words come out of his mouth, and heard the other three inhale sharply, with Sword seemingly choking on his own saliva. Nova rumbled deep in his throat, and Meta Knight realized he was actually chuckling.

"YOUR WISH."

Nova's eyes flashed momentarily, and the feathers floating around them drifted towards Galacta, attaching to his back until they had formed his full, old wings. Next to them hovered a very familiar star-shaped aircraft; their ticket home.

"Good job, sir," murmured Blade, seeming relieved. Sword made a gagging sound that sounded like he agreed, although he seemed edgy. Must've been the saliva.

And Galacta? Galacta laughed. And promptly fainted.

**Author's Notes: Sorry for so many family relations ^^' But, in a way, GK isn't his brother, just a rival. *shrugs* Hope ya enjoyed the chapter, anyway!**


	36. Chapter 36

He had fought a true nightmare before. He had fought an eyeball that had exploded in a collision of blood. But Kirby wasn't ready for this. His former friend, who had crashed into Nova, had regained his wings through a sickening process of what seemed and looked like zombification.

He first seemed to hang in space, eyes disorientated and lost, as if he were blinded by Nova's light. Then Nova's pieces drifted towards him, forming what looked like arms.

_**'VeNgEaNcE iS wHaT yOu WaNt,'**_ his pieces seemed to whisper. '_**KiRbY wIlL nEvEr UnDeRsTaNd YoU. He WilL hUrT yOu LiKe ThOsE fRoM tHe UnSeEn WoRlD. HE wIlL bEtRaY yOu LiKe AlL tHe OtHeRs. Do YoU wAnT tO bE hUrT aGaIn?"**_

Marx screamed an indistinct answer. Kirby wanted to respond angrily, saying he would never hurt him, but his words were drowned out by his scream. His scream soon turned into blood-chilling, insane laughter, and before his very eyes, the jester transformed into a shadow of his living self.

He seemed darker, almost blue, his tongue sticking uncomfortably out. His eyes seemed to pierce through space, as if staring straight into Kirby's soul.

** "I'LL KILL YOU!"** he had shrieked over and over again, smashing and swinging his wings around wildly, barely missing Kirby by inches. Kirby jumped back and grimaced. His voice was distorted and raspy, and he sounded as if he were put together by a thread, but his swinging was dangerously accurate and speedy. He finally managed to smash Kirby into the ground and grab him with his now-triple claws, kicking him in the gut thrice and sending him flying straight to the ground.

Kirby landed with a loud thud, but shakily got up, the star-streaked road making him dizzy. When his head finally cleared, he stared up at Marx and shivered. Just staring at Marx's revenge-filled eyes was enough to make him freeze with horror, making him think over and over again, 'What have I done to my friend?'

No. Not Marx's eyes. As Kirby's eyes adjusted even more to the crazy pattern of lights coming from the ground, and Marx had stopped wildly swinging around, Kirby clearly saw some sort of shadow controlling his movement, as if he were a puppet come back to life-in which he probably was. But one thing was clear. He wasn't alone. That much hate couldn't radiate out of one person. But as Kirby stared, he couldn't see one sign of human emotion in him.

**"WHY DO YOU HATE ME?!"** Marx shrieked, his voice slurred because of his hanging tongue, sending paintballs flying all over the place, not directly coming from him. **"WHY DO YOU ALL HATE ME, DAMMIT?! I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU! IT ISN'T MY FREAKING FAULT THAT I HAVE NO ARMS OR LOOK LIKE A FREAK!"**

The paintballs now redirected themselves, pointed at Kirby. They seemed to form drills in midair, and at the last second, Kirby leaped out of the way, the paintballs continuously smashing the floor until they had all disappeared, their multicolored remains splattered all around him.

"Marpoyo!" Kirby yelled desperately. "MARPOYO!" He seemed to be trying to form words without the continuous 'poyo' he always said, but was failing to do so.

** "WHAT?!"** shrieked Marx in reply, his face having a hint of annoyance. **"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?!"**

"Marx, you promised me! We were friends!" The words came out so quickly, even Kirby had to pause for a while to comprehend it, and even afterwards, he was shell shocked. He had SPOKEN. It had happened before when he had desperately tried to talk Zero out of his plans, but not this suddenly.

Marx was even more surprised. He seemed to snap out of his zombie trance for a second, staring intently at the puffball. His eyes seemed to zone back, and he became aware of the uncomfortable angle his tongue, which he couldn't move, was in. He looked around in a fright, his blue and red eyes wide, his lip quivering, as if he were about to cry. He, too, seemed to be trying to say something, which turned into a number of gags and hisses because of his weak, hanging tongue. But his expression once again darkened, and he howled with laughter, pelting Kirby with paintballs.

Kirby inhaled them all, determined to get his friend back, but spat them back out. They were like acid, but a million times worse. Acid and Waddle Dee. He could never eat them, and acid sometimes burned his tongue. They were just like these two. But worse. Marx seemed amused by the attempt to inhale his paintballs. He licked his lip in an attempt to talk more, but only ended with him grimacing in pain.

"Hurtpoyo?" Kirby couldn't help but ask. Marx laughed, almost taunting the puff. His tongue seemed to be completely numb now, painfully, but it couldn't stifle his insane, wild laughter.

"Stopoyo!" Kirby yelled desperately, lunging forward with his sharp boomerang drawn. Marx didn't move, unexpectedly, as if deciding whether to finish Kirby off or not. However, he didn't manage to make the decision before the boomerang plunged into his stomach. Marx shrieked, drawing his tongue in his mouth and letting his wings droop, hanging from the blade as blood dripped from his wound. Kirby himself yelped in dismay and dropped the blade, looking at his arm stumps in horror. Marx, instead of laughing at his reaction, fell, writhing on the floor.

"IT HURTS!" he shrilled, able to talk again. "IT HURTS SO MUCH!"

He began hacking blood on the floor, his back to Kirby. Kirby squeezed his eyes shut, covering them with his hands, but...

**"Ha... HA HA... AHAHAHAA! HOUHOUHAHAHA! HEEHEEHEEHEE!"**

Kirby screamed and jumped back as Marx got up shakily, eyes bulging more than ever. His mouth was outlined with blood, but his wound mended itself until it was completely gone.

**"JUST KIDDING!"** he screamed cheerfully. **"I'M ALREADY DEAD YOU BUFFOON! YOU CAN'T LAY A FINGER ON ME!"**

Kirby stepped back in shock and revulsion, his eyes never leaving where the wound had been. It had reformed- no, MELTED back into place. Marx himself seemed to be made of paint and blood. This caused Kirby to shake even more uncontrollably, but instead of laughing, Marx smiled, his tongue still back in place, allowing him to talk. But Kirby would've preferred for him to have stayed mute after he had to hear what the jester said next.

**"KIRBY, DON'T YOU GET IT?"** shrilled Marx, unable to control his volume. **"I HATE YOU! YOU DON'T HAVE TO HOLD BACK. HURT ME SOME MORE! I DARE YOU!"**

Kirby froze as he remembered the word 'hate.' It hadn't seemed to effect him before, but niw he remembered it clearly. Gooey. Zero. Eyes, everywhere, watching them.

'Pain,' they had hissed from around their superior. 'All we know is pain. Why are you keeping us from our happiness...?'

Kirby had blocked the voices out in desperation, clinging to his head. What WERE these things? They were evil, but why did they keep begging for happiness? Was it some kind of taunt? He hadn't ever seen anyone without any happiness. When his head had cleared, he saw Gooey, uneffected from the raspy whispers, look up at Zero.

"Papa," he had murmured, eyes lowered. There was a smile on his face, but it was lacking the usual happiness and perkiness it had. The eyeball squinted at him, almost enraged, angered... disapproving.

"Persona non grata," the eyeball had replied in a monotone voice. Gooey had winced, and Kirby had known why. 'Persona non grata' had meant to be unwelcome, to be ostracized for eternity. Fumu had taught him it when she had shrieked it at Dedede for reasons unknown to Kirby. But Gooey had quickly covered his emotional pain with a saying that shocked Kirby: "Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. The more you hate someone, the more you can love them in turn."

The eyeball had made a hiss, and Kirby had realized in a while that he was sighing with stress.

"Using my own words against me- probably the only smart thing you've done your whole life."

Gooey had frowned, and Kirby had grimaced. A frown did NOT fit the cute blob. His whole face darkened and he looked just like a Dark Matter with two eyes. And Kirby had hated.

Staring back at Marx scream- laughing, he realized what Gooey's words had meant. It was an eery message, but Kirby soon nodded to himself hesitantly, deciding it was the only way. He had gone up against a paint demon beast, one that came AFTER Nightmare's defeat. The only way he had defeated was...

Kirby straightened up. He threw away his cutter ability and desperately looked around to see any way to improvise, dodging paintballs that rained from the sky and vines that came from the ground. Marx screamed with frustration, vanishing. Kirby stopped in alarm to see where he had gone, until he reappeared right next to him, and flung his mouth open. Kirby was suddenly blasted away with a searing hot light, and smashed into the ground. He whimpered, staying limp for a moment, before getting up, eyes evidently showing his exhaustion.

But as soon as he gave up hope, he saw the object he was looking for. There. Right where Fumu left it.

Dedede's mallet.

He scrambled up and, with all the strength he had left, inhaled the hammer, instantly turning into hammer Kirby. Marx scoffed at the transformation, then cackled.

As he split into two.

Kirby was frozen for one blood-chilling moment as he saw his friend continue cackling, his mind completely gone insane. The space between his two halves turned into some kind of vortex, and before he knew it, he was running away for dear life as a black hole inhaled everything around him, almost snagging his hammer as well. Finally, Marx, eyes outlined with black circles, gave up, panting. He seemed to hang in the air for a minute or two, then finally lowered his head. It had exhausted him.

Now.

Kirby hoisted his hammer and ran towards the nauseous Marx, half of him pulling himself back. 'Don't do it!' Kirby was thirty yards away... 'Marx was your friend!' Twenty yards... 'He trusted you!' Ten yards... 'NO!' Five yards... 'Stop it, idiot!' One yard... 'Please...no...' Hardly a few feet away... He jumped...

"MARX!"

Kirby's scream caught the jester's attention, just before he dealt the blow. So many emotions passed through his face- anguish, a sense of betrayal, sadness, anger... He could've killed Kirby. One swift flick from either of his wings could've murdered him. But something made him hesitate. Was it his friendship? Or was he just too shocked to do anything? But because of either, Kirby dealt the finishing blow, landing right behind Marx.

His attack gave off a reaction he didn't expect. Marx hovered in the air for a minute, silent, his back to him. Then slowly, weakly, he turned to Kirby. Kirby caught his breath to keep from crying as Marx smiled his old smile, his old features gone. Kirby felt like he could just walk up to the jester and hug him. Then he remembered his phobia and stopped himself.

"Marx?"

Marx laughed happily, his eyes not the 'staring-into-your-soul' eyes. Kirby was thankful. He hated those eyes.

"Hey... hey... hey..." he said dizzily. "Friends... for...ev...er... ri...ght...?"

Kirby was happily about to answer and embrace the jester, but suddenly, Marx's eyes snapped open.

"You... be...trayed... me... be...cause...you...wan...ted... to...save...ev...ery...one...right...?"

Kirby gulped and nodded, eyes filled with sadness. Marx's eyes grew foggy.

"Then... how... come... you...did...n't...sa...ve...me...?"

Suddenly, his skin seemed to crack open from the middle, and he split in half, eyes wide.

_** "SCREEEEEEEEEEE!"**_ he screamed as he split in two.

Kirby shrieked as he hid his eyes, sobbing. No... it couldn't be... no...

But as he watched, Marx's two halves dissolved into nothing, his tears being the last thing to vanish.

It was a long time afterwards until Marx's scream completely vanished from the universe, never to be heard again.


	37. Chapter 37

"You! What are you doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing. Why would you of all people, a young and innocent child, die and be stuck in eternal limbo for taking drastic measures to have gotten what you wanted?"

"You don't look TOO surprised."

"I'm not even the slightest bit surprised."

"Hmph. That sounds like you, considering what you did. So I'm stuck in here? It doesn't look that bad."

"If you actually were staying, you would see what it does to you... Disgusting... I wish they had died... BURNED in Hell for what they put me through... I should have KILLED them ALL!... Ah. And no, you actually aren't. I dragged you down here to give you a message."

"A message? About?"

"The future, both mine and yours."

"...Oh. So, what do you have to tell me?"

"..."

"Why are you staring at me like that? You look like you want one of my eyeballs or something."

"Ha! Ahahahaha! I wish!... But... can I tell you?... Well, I could trust a child... But you almost...Well he's evil like u-... He could tell Kirby... Oh, why should I-..."

"What internal conflict could you possibly have, you PIECE OF CARDBOARD?"

"... I don't fully... trust either you or myself... Or anyone... Don't look at me like that! I have fully saddening reasons why."

...Ow... Ow...OW...

"Damn it! You're waking up! Listen to me! Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides!-"

...OW...

"There has never been a coin ever made that doesn't have two sides, unless it's completely demented. Even YOU had to succumb to- bleh- friendship. Everyone is both evil and good starting from when they are born, but it is their decision which they want more."

"Wait, what are you-?"

"Shut up! There comes a time in your life where you have to decide whether to love or hate-"

"This conversation is a little late-"

"Will you SHUT UP? I'm not TALKING about the stupid Nova! That thing will live for all I care- it's basically invincible and will never die! Forget about your past! Kirby's done so already, and your tiny life is nothing compared to what he's going to do! He already wants to forgive you, for shit's sake!"

"But I can't forgive myself! I listened to a BLEEDING EYEBALL because I was so desperate for crying out loud!"

"And you can fix that. You'll gain new friends, remember and still befriend the old. Maybe you'll be a bit jumpy around Kirby- I don't blame you. But that will pass. And in the end, you will be happy forever."

"Wait... where are you going?"

"You're already fixed. You'll forget about me. But you will always remember this speech, no matter what."

"How could I ever forget YOU?"

"I am always forgotten. I bet you don't even remember my real name."

"...You-You're making me forget about you! Quit it!"

"Only the chosen one must remember me... Yes... the chosen one..."

...Ow... OWWWWWWW!

Marx screamed as he fell face-first on the floor on the cold floor, sobbing as he remembered what had happened. Kirby had HURT him. He hadn't understood him like he thought he would. He... he was a TRAITOR. An evil Star Warrior, just as the Crystal had told him. It had KNOWN Kirby would've hurt him, but no, HE had to trust a Warrior that had... been... a friend...

"Hey, are you alright? You were hardly alive when we found you."

Marx froze when he heard the voice. It was a strange, high-pitched, but familiar voice that filled himself with a sense of security and comfort, but Marx quickly decided to not trust the being.

"Wh-who are you?" he stuttered instead, his insane, wild soul nature replaced by his usual, whimpering, harmless nature. "Why did you help me? How did you find me?!" His questions were followed by a silence, then a strange, tittering noise. It took a while for Marx to realize the voice was laughing.

"Magolor, at your service," squeaked the voice, and Marx felt two gloved hands wrap around him, helping him up. Usually a gesture like this would have been unusual, and would've been uncomfortable for the young jester, but Marx suddenly, strangely, felt again secure around this 'Magolor.'

When Marx's vision cleared and his head stopped throbbing, he clearly saw the creature. He was a short alien with no feet and detached hands with white mittens. He was clad in a regal blue suit, complete with a white cape with gold trimmings and a dash of purple, gold-trimmed cog designs, and a white scarf with a blue belt interwoven. His face was a very dark brown with oval shaped, glowing yellow eyes. Except for him and Kirby, he was probably the cutest thing he had ever seen.

"Hey, hey, hey!" said Marx, trying for a smile, which didn't work much after his splitting-in-half incident. Then he blinked at the remembrance. He frowned and stared hard at the alien. "Wait... how did you find me?... And revive me?"

The alien stared at him, then began giggling again.

"What do you mean revive? I found you floating in space just fine. You looked a little scared, maybe a little hurt, and unconscious, but other than that you were fine."

Marx sputtered a few retorts, but then gave up and looked at the ground, at a loss for words. He HAD been split in half. He remembered it clearly: Kirby had his hammer drawn... tears in his eyes... then...

"What happened?"

The voice sounded concerned now, and the alien clearly looked worried. He seemed a bit awkward, standing right in front of a large screen that seemed to be analyzing his heart beat.

'He's just like me,' Marx realized in relief. 'A huge goofball.'

So then, in tears, he told him. He told him how he had befriended Kirby and his friends and had traveled space to recover Nova. He told him about his secret conversations with Kirby, making him quickly his best, if not only, friend. He told him about Nova, his wish, and his two deaths, and even explained how he had split in two. He also hesitantly gave brief, quiet explanations of his past, making the alien stiffen. The only thing he didn't mention was the crystal, which he would possibly talk about later.

After a few moments prior to his explaining, Marx broke down in tears, then mentally slapped himself. Goofball or not, this alien would stop at nothing to mock him. His armless figure. His whimpering nature-

Marx suddenly stiffened as he felt two hands wrap around him, belonging to Magolor. When he released, the alien stared at him almost protectively.

"Those bullies don't match to you," Magolor murmured to his surprise. "They think they can make fun of you just like that? That's low."

It took Marx a few moments to process these words, and even when he did, he stayed frozen.

He didn't call him a monster? An armless freak? He was PROTECTING him?

"Why...?" he murmured, the only word he could make escape his lips. Only two people had protected him before; the crystal... and that girl...

Magolor giggled his soothing laugh again, but then seemed to frown.

"I...that was friendship...right...? I did it right? You're my friend?"

Marx blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"I...I haven't seen a living life form...in a while..." The alien seemed to tremble, eyes tearing up. He somehow straightened himself when he noticed Marx staring at him sympathetically. "Come, come, we need to catch up. I'll steam up some hot chocolate and I'll tell you all about myself, and you get to meet Melchior..."

As the alien began chattering off, walking towards the 'kitchen' of his amazingly technologized ship, Marx remained silent.

He had earned himself a friend. One that had saved his life, and understood him. THAT quickly?

He remembered how quickly Kirby had become his friend... no. He would forget about him. Never call him a friend again. Forget him.

As Marx stared out of the window of the spacecraft out into space, he changed his mind to his mother, who had now become a part of his own soul. Literally. It scared him, but somehow put him at ease, knowing his mother had never left him.

But... the crystal... He could remember a blurry vision of it's true form... Such a beautiful voice, though... It had brought him at peace.

'It hurts, Marx," it had groaned, tears in it's eyes. "They're hurting me. They're all hurting me... Help me.'

"I will help you," he whispered back, remembering his promise. "I'll come back and help you, and we'll finally be happy..."

He suddenly noticed his eyes had changed colors, one being red and one being blue. But he instead ignored it.

Instead, Marx smiled as a blurry image of the crystal's true form appeared in front of him in the glass, smiling a beautiful radiant smile, almost like an angel from his dreams. Then it vanished, and Marx turned away and smiled at his new friend, who insisted on fluffing his hat and creating a foot-high-five. Just for him.

...

"Hey, Kirby, wanna pelt Dedede?"

Kirby turned to Grill, his emotionless expression lifting just a bit. It had hardly been two weeks since Marx's supposed 'death', and his spirits had not lifted since then. It didn't help at all that Fumu kept saying, 'I told you he'd betray you. But nooo.'

Grill seemed to pick on his cheek attempting to cheer him up, to no avail. Finally, Pepper whispered something in her ear, causing her to deviously smile. She knocked Kirby onto her broomstick and, holding onto her hat and ignoring Kirby's yelping, she zoomed off.

By three seconds tops, Kirby had been flung off of her broom and knocked into the ground in front of the place where Dedede claimed 'reported important news.' He forcefully got up, and his eyes widened. Unusually, every cappy in town stood in front, giving him a hard chance to see properly, until he hitched a ride on Grill's broom.

There stood Chief Borun, pushing Dedede, who wore a stylish suit, frantically away from the camera turning to it himself.

"Listen!" he roared, pointing at a poster in his hands. It was unclear through the television, but it definitely looked like a wanted poster.

"Dorocche the master thief has arrived in our town! I am not fully aware of what he is after, but he will stop at nothing to get it! Bar your windows! Lock your- ow!"

Dedede pushed the cop away, and the cappy landed a few yards away with a thud, ending the signal of Dedede channel.

The Cappies remained quiet for a few seconds, before yelling and screaming in alarm and fear, Tokkori yelling the loudest: "HE'S GONNA ROB US BLIND! WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND DIE ALONE AND NAKED!"

Kirby turned pale at this, yelling to get someone's attention, anyone's, until everything turned dark, except a spotlight right in the center of the crowd, shining over Gooey. The blob lifted his tongue high and crossed it into an x, causing everyone to quiet down and a choir to start singing.

"This robber is nothing to us!" he yelled looking everyone square in the eye. "We can't let him frighten us like this! We have to show our true selves to them and raise our voices!"

He and the spotlight vanished, only to reappear seconds next to Kirby and Grill, causing the spotlight to shine on them as well.

"You can make that happen, you two! Save us from the robbers! Save us from these pests who think they can take us down! YOU ARE KIRBY AND GRILL! DESTROYERS OF ALL EVILLL!"

The crowd roared in approval, causing Grill to take off her hat and fan herself.

"Take it easy, it's just some robbers. But we will take them down. We'll make them wish they never came to Popstar!"

The crowd roared again as the light came back to normal and Gooey nodded, jumping back into the crowd as they began chanting Kirby and Grill's names, unaware that anybody could be listening...

...

Far off from the town, from a cliff that surveyed every corner of Pupupu Village, a human girl stood. She was adorable, her dress made out of pure lace and silk, and her hair pulled up into a stiff, curly ponytail. Her parasol, which blocked her face, shielded her from revealing her true identity as she studied the cappies rejoicing in front of Kirby. Finally, she pulled her parasol up, revealing her unflawed face, minus her multi-colored eyes, her right eye being a beautiful blue color, and her left being a strange, warped purple color.

She smiled a cute, childish smile as her eyes brightened up even more.

"Golly, gee, everyone looks like they're having so much fun!"

She skipped away after a few more seconds, using the parasol to shield her face, and melted into the shadows.


End file.
